Disco Rising
by Phoenix Reece
Summary: One bear, searching for the scoop of a lifetime ends up in a mall crawling with zombies. Join Disco Bear as he stars in a remake of the story of Dead Rising. The last chapter is here.
1. Welcome to Hell

**Disco Rising: Dead Rising Starring Disco Bear and the rest.**

**AUTHOR'S NOTE**

I'd just like to dedicate this story to Disco Bear, a misunderstood pervert who is a fine character with plenty of personality. I wrote this story with the belief that he deserves just as much screen time as a certain other bear. *Cough*Flippy*Cough*

Oh yeah, and **DISCLAIMER: **I do not Own Disco Bear, Happy Tree Friends, or Dead Rising. All Characters are Copyright to their Respective owners.

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The thin air holding the craft in the sky was being constantly sliced by the whirring propeller blades as the helicopter flew into the small, rural town. The pilot couldn't help but speak up as they officially entered the airspace of his one passenger's destination.

"Here ya have it, Happy Tree Town. Population 53,594. Local attractions, squat! Pretty much the only thing to do around this dead end town is kill time at the mall. " The pilot called to his only passenger. His name was Handy. Ironic, because of an accident years back that left him an amputee. Now a days, however, he'd never let that stop him, and piloted the helicopter with ease. When the passenger didn't answer him, Handy turned back to the windshield. He tried to stay focused, but something caught his eye and caused him to call out. "Hey, hey lookit this!" He yelled once again and pointed down towards earth with his bandaged nubs. Back at the other end of the helicopter a bear grinned and lifted his camera up to his eye to get a proper shot. Zooming in on his lens , the bear could easily make out the two military jeeps that were parked on the bridge to the town, barricading out any attempting to enter, or exit. He clicked a photo of the scene and smirked "Heh, I knew the government woulda gotten here before me. Helicopter was the only way to arrive. " He growled in his usual, cocky tone. The bear went by Disco, as it would be the first thing that came to anyone's mind when they set their eyes on him. Clad in a garish yellow disco suit, the flashy attire was matched only by his prized orange afro.

"Wh-what do you think's goin' on down there," Handy asked baffled.

"I dunno but it's gonna be big. That's why me and you are here." Replied Disco, as the smile on his face grew ever larger.

"Speak for yourself buddy, I'm only dropping you off." Handy mumbled as he went back to his controls.

Disco continued clicking away as the helicopter flew further into the town. Oddly enough, a few people roamed aimlessly around the town, as if unaware of the military sealing them away. The town seemed strangely calm considering the rumors and buzz that drew the scoop-seeking Disco to the area. Calm, until Handy spotted a group of people surrounding a small car. "What, what are they doing to him?" He yelled, as Disco focused his lens on the action. Standing on the car was a green animal, (undistinguishable from this distance, save for a mild under bite on him) backing slowly away from the mob of people swarming him. Realizing he was surrounded, he turned and noticed the helicopter. Frantic and desperate for help, he waved and called to the aircraft, attempting to flag Handy down. Unbeknownst to him, a member of the crowd around the car grabbed him and pulled him down onto the pavement below, as the other people hunched over the poor creature. What happened next was unknown to the two on the helicopter, as the car blocked the attack from view.

"What the hell is going on down there? Some kinda riot?" Handy asked, obviously shaken by the events unfolding before him.

"Maybe, just maybe. But if this was just a riot, why would the military be so quick to seal the place of and not just get inside a quell the riot?" Disco asked back, analyzing everything before him.

Before Handy was forced to think up an answer, he noticed they had arrived.

"Here we are pal, the center of town. Happy Tree Mall, just like you asked." He said.

But before disco could thank him, another Helicopter tore away at his words. Floating next to them was a military chopper. The craft pulled up near the two and boomed a command over a loud speaker.

"You have entered a restricted airspace! Leave immediately or we are authorized to use force!" The other pilot called. Disco, desperate to catch the scoop of a lifetime, of course needed more time in the mysterious town. His eyes dashed across the mall when he spotted a helipad on the roof of the mall. The bear ran to Handy's cockpit and yelled to the pilot. "There! Quickly ! Bring us down over there!" The helicopter whirled around and drifted down to the landing pad, but could only manage to hover over the mall's roof

"I don't have time to land, I gotta get out of here!" Handy yelled.

"Fine! Whatever, I'll just jump!" Disco said sarcastically. Then, realizing Handy meant it, double checked his camera was around his neck and leaped from the helicopter. Disco hit the roof with a roll and stood up oddly unharmed. As he dusted himself off, Disco turned to see the Helicopter fly off, and heard a distant cry

" Don't forget! Three days! I'll be back!" Handy yelled

Disco pulled out a comb and brushed his beloved afro, grumbling to himself, "Yeah yeah, like I'd ever forget my ticket out of this hell hole."

"Ahhh, Mr. Bear. Lovely to meet you. So You're the famous photographer here to catch the big story before anyone else." A Spanish-tinged voice called him and suddenly Disco realized he wasn't alone on the roof. He turned in the direction of the voice an saw a blue otter leaning against the wall. He wore a striped shirt and torn black pants. His face was covered by a black, wide brimmed hat, but Disco could tell he had an eye patch over his left eye. Before Disco could speak back to the man, he continued himself "My name, is Russell, Mr. Bear. And I'm sure if you head down through this door, past the security room you'll certainly find your scoop" The strange man pointed behind him to a door, and Disco, not wanting to spend any more time with him, walked through the metal door past Russell. As he descended the staircase, Disco swore he could here Russell whisper one last sentence to him.

"And by the way, welcome to hell"

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All righty! My first ever story! Oh, just so you know, that was Cro-marmot on top of the car, he's unfrozen now, but dead. Also, Russell isn't missing any limbs, because it would be hard to work around a hook hand and peg legs later on. I guess this is where I ask you folks to R&R. Though I'm not sure why you need to reuse and recycle. Or maybe it means "Rest and Relax". Yeah! You have earned some rest, haven't you pal? So take a load off. And um, flamers will be destroyed with a level 20 Holy Axe? Whatever that means.


	2. Zombies!

**AUTHOR'S NOTE!**

Well, well, well, looks like people are actually reading my stories! Now, in this chapter, I'm gonna have to change some parts that occurred in the game, simply because there aren't enough Happy Tree Friends to fill in every role in the game. (Remember when I unfroze Cro-marmot simply to fill a minor role?) That will come into play later though, and I'm gonna need some people to help me fill in the blanks with their OCs, but that won't happen for a while. For now, just enjoy….

**Disco Rising: Chapter 2**

Disco walked silently through the security room the bizarre stranger had pointed him to. It was seemed like a small supply room, divided into a couple different rooms, and a few couches meant for employees to rest on. He reached a metal door at the opposite end of the staircase he had entered through and noticed it was, thankfully, unlocked. Disco swung it open, and entered the next half of the security room. In it resided a wall covered in monitor screens, set out in front of a desk so a security personnel could observe all goings on in the mall. Most of the screens were crackling with static, save for one that drew Disco's eye. It was a shot of the parking garage, as a woman struggled to climb into her car, pursued by some faceless attacker. Just as the woman turned to shut the door, her attacker grabbed onto her and wedged their arm in the door. Panicked, she slammed the door on the fiend, but it simply ignored the excruciating pain that the door was surely causing them. Instead of recoiling in agony, the attacker pulled harder and jolted the girl from the car. The attacker then tossed her to the ground, and hunched over her, tearing away at her face with its bare hands.

Disco could watch no more, and turned to exit the security room. He passed onward through the room of monitors and further still past the generators and other machines that powered the mall until he reached a door that allowed him access into the mall itself. He stepped out and realized he was on the second floor, nearby what appeared to be an entrance. Curious still, Disco walked to the ledge that over looked the ground floor, and nearly vomited with terror and disgust. Lining the mall floor from wall to wall was an ocean of zombies. Unmistakable, though he couldn't tell from the helicopter, he could see their rotting flesh easily now. Despite his obvious terror, Disco lifted the camera to his eye and began snapping pictures. Unbeknownst to him, he was in more danger than he thought on the second floor, as a zombie lurched slowly towards him.

"Hmm? Somebody the-" Disco began to ask as he heard the approaching footsteps, but he turned too late and the ghoul had already latched it's claws into him. Disco screamed (oddly girl-like), and he and the zombie went tumbling over the railing. But in a stroke of blind luck, Disco's panicked flailing had managed to turn the zombie under him and the impact upon their "landing" had been cushioned by the zombie. Still dazed, the bear had managed to turn himself over and stand up. Meanwhile, as Disco steadied himself, the swarms of zombies realized a pile of fresh meat had fallen to them from above and were slowly closing in on him. Disco finally caught his bearings and, realizing the approaching mob, attempted to retreat. His efforts were met, however, with a steel grate to the face, as someone had shut the security gate leading further into the mall.

"DAMN IT DAMN IT DAMN IT!!!!" Disco shouted as he slammed his fists into the grate "Game Over! I'm zombie chow!!! I'm too pretty to die! ARGH!" Suddenly, someone, probably attracted by Disco's delirious screams, called from the second floor.

"Hello? Can anyone hear me down there?" A gruff voice called. Disco glanced upward and saw a green bear clad in military garbs shouting down to him. "You there! What happened to the barricade? Where are the other survivors?"

Disco shrugged and replied ,"Listen pal, this place was zombie central waaay before I got here by the looks of it, so you can assume anyone who was here is dead now. So, are you gonna help me outta here, or what?" He sounded awfully cocky for someone about to be eaten.

"God, you're a complete imbecile," The bear muttered under his breath

"What's that? Speak up!"

"I said you can use the stairs over near the entrance! Getup here and I can get you to safety!"

The photographer glanced in the direction the other bear had pointed him. The stairs were directly ahead, only about twenty or so feet. But, of course, these twenty feet were carpeted wall to wall with zombies. Thinking quickly, Disco ran up to a zombie headed towards him and grabbed it by the shoulders. "Pardon me sir, but I'll just be passing through" He said chuckling and pulled himself up onto the zombie's shoulders. Standing above the zombie horde, Disco then performed what many would believe impossible. He walked across the zombies, moving from shoulder to shoulder over the crowd until he reached the stairs, and without dismounting the zombie, swung himself onto the staircase. The bear in the army shirt and beret was waiting for him at the top.

"Piece o' cake, daddy-o." Disco laughed, and pulled out his comb to brush his afro.

"Well, I hope you had fun, because I'm dropping you off in the security room and hopefully you won't end up like the survivors guarding the barricade." He said turning to the door, but turned again when he realized something, "By the way, isn't 'Daddy-o' a jazz era term, not a dis- LOOK OUT!" Disco glanced behind him to where the other bear was pointing. A particularly persistent zombie had followed the scent of fresh meat up the stairs, and readied itself to chomp the photographer's brains. Disco, however, was ready this time, and executed a spinning hook kick on the corpse, decapitating it and leaving the body to tumble down the stairs.

The military bear, awestruck, asked "Whuh, where did you-"

"Learn that? Tae-kwon-doe. Heard that song 'kung fu fighting' a while back and thought I'd get involved with that scene. Thought it was a funky dance, but a fighting style works too."

The green bear shook his head at Disco's idiotic explanation and turned to enter the security room through the same entrance Disco had entered the mall. Disco went to follow him, but noticed a man moving around outside the metal grate beyond the zombie crowd. Pulling out his camera, he focused in a shot of the man. He was also a bear, but seemed older than Disco or the other military bear. He was clad in a red bathrobe and was smoking a pipe of tobacco. When the camera's shutter clicked, the older bear turned up to see who was photographing him.

"Leave me alone! I won't relive the past! Why can't you people forgive and old man's mistakes?!?!" He shouted, covering his face. He retreated further into the mall when Disco heard that gruff voice call him again.

"Hey Disco man! You coming or not?"

"Yeah yeah, right behind you, sergeant.

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AAALLLLL RIGHTY! Chapter two is live! Now, i'm just gonna use this space to clear some things up.

First of all, fans of the game Dead Rising, will notice the scene where the main character runs into a group of survivors setting up a barricade that is then overrun by zombies is missing. This is because as I said earlier, I do not have enough HTF to fill all those roles in that scene, so it was cut. Also, as to why Disco now kicks ass, the main character in Dead Rising, Frank West, is somehow an incredibly skilled martial artist(seriously, he disembowels army soildiers with his bare hands) so I created the explaination that Disco thought tae-kwon-doe was a funky dance and took some classes to explain why he's so skilled. Finally, the girl in the parking garage that gets eaten. She's no one in particular, a Generic Tree Friend most likely.

Well, thanks for reading!


	3. Flaky, Flippy and Mole

**Author's Note**

Well, woulda lookit that. You came back again! Alright! Well, I can't say much about this chapter. Not that I'd be revealing anything important, it's just, I won't be saying anything that won't read in a few seconds. Enjoy!

**Disco Rising: chapter 3**

Back in the security room, Disco sized up the other survivors, aside from the gruff bear he already had the "pleasure" of meeting earlier. A bright red porcupine, dandruff flaking off her quills, stood leaning up against a large AC unit, staring at the ground. She pushed her small glasses up to her eyes and looked up, staring back at Disco. After a few moments, she quickly looked away. Disco's eyes flitted over to an older purple mole, dressed in a mall security uniform, black glasses covering his eyes. The old man simply cleared his throat, and turned to adjust some pipes lining the wall.

The green bear, tired of this awkward silence, came up to Disco. "The barricade, it was gone when you got there?" He asked

"Couldn't even tell there was one, aside from rubble here 'n there." Disco responded, unflinching.

"And the survivors?" He asked,

"None as far as I could see. If they didn't make it to you by now, doubt they ever will." another cold response.

The green bear walked up to the older man, tapped him on the shoulder. He then motioned to the steel door, and the mole gave a solemn nod and picked up a small blowtorch near the AC machine. Without a word or even a backwards glance, he knelt down and began to weld the door shut. The porcupine girl walked up to the bear, a worried look on her face.

"A-are you sure we should? What if the other survivors-" She began, but the green bear cut her off.

"Our new guest here is right, they couldn't have survived this long or they'd be here." He said, and walked toward the AC machine. With a heavy grunt, he pulled off a grate from the vent.

"Would you kindly explain what the hell you're doing?" Disco asked as the bear sized up the opening.

"I need to use the vents. It'll give me an alternate route back in, and the zombies aren't smart enough to try going through here." He said and slipped into the dark opening.

"What, but you can't be thinking of-" Disco tried to reason with the bear, but he had slipped out of earshot as Disco continued rambling on to no one. During this, the porcupine had slipped up behind disco and lifted her head to his ear.

Then she politely asked "Excuse me, is this a camera?"

Disco, caught off guard, gave a yelp and turned quickly, holding his hands in a fighting stance. "GAH! Don't sneak up on me!" He said, but quickly regained his composure "I mean, uh, yeah it is? Disco B. West, photojournalist, but most people just call me Disco Bear. Now, who are you? And who was that guy?"

"Can I see your photos, ?" She asked, ignoring his question entirely.

"Um, sure, why not?" He said, handing over his camera. The strange girl flipped through the pictures, but stopped suddenly when she reached the picture Disco had taken of the strange old man in the entrance plaza. She held the camera up to him, clearly excited, and asked

"Where did you take this picture?"

Disco, baffled, answered her question blindly "Uh, near the entrance plaza, right before I escaped. Old geezer was hanging around behind the gate separating the entrance from the rest of the mall, but he bolted when I snapped the picture of him."

"Thank you very much, !" She said happily, and turned to walk away. Disco, finally realizing what had just happened, shouted.

"HEY! Hold on a second! I just gave you info, now give me some! Who are you, and the other bear, and why is this man so important?" he asked, frustrated.

The girl froze in her tracks, turned and said one thing, still vibrantly happy, "I'm Flaky, the other bear is Flippy. That's all I'm authorized to tell you." And with that she turned and walked away, but not before Disco could snap a picture of her. By the time the digital picture appeared on the camera's screen, Flaky had already shut the door behind her in the monitor room, leaving Disco to stare at the picture with a contemplative look on his face. Unbeknownst to him, there was still someone else in the room with him, and the mole snuck up and glanced at the picture over Disco's shoulder. Displayed on the screen, fully zoomed in, was a picture of Flaky's butt, covered only by the tight beige skirt she wore.

" Isn't she a little young for you, sonny? Nice butt she's got though" said the mole, finally breaking the long silence and startling Disco once again.

"BWAH! What did I tell you people about sneaking up on me? And she's like, 24 or sumthin'!" He said, blushing, "Besides, who are you to be making judgments, Methuselah?"

"Well, my name's Mole. T. Mole Washington, but everyone calls me Mole. I've been working for this mall for 30 years, only figures I'd get stuck here when all hell breaks loose." He said, his face looking very contemplative, as if he was reminiscing on his long life, as he looked about 70. Ignoring the old man, Disco made his way to the vent, and stared at it, wondering if he could get in without ruining his afro. Mole noticed this, and walked up to the photographer.

"Are you honestly going in that thing?" He asked.

"Well, since Flakerella over there won't tell me anything, I'm gonna have to find these things out for myself!"

"Oh, I see…" He said, sadly, but realizing something, his face lit up. Mole reached into his uniform and pulled out two objects. "Here! If you're heading out there, take these! A map of the mall, and a walkie-talkie, so I can keep in touch and tell you if I happen to find anything on the monitor screens. These'll be able to get ya through the mall safely. Or, slightly safer as the case may be."

"Sure, sweet. Groovy, whatever. I gotta go." Disco said, apathetically taking the items from the old man and climbing into the vent. As he slunk through the dark crawlspace, he thought to himself "Geez, that old guy's such a downer. Hope I don't have to listen to him ramble on anymore."

When he could finally see daylight, Disco exited the vent and realized he was on another section of the roof, far from the helipad. Noticing an elevator that must lead into the mall, Disco took advantage of his good luck and used it to descend into the building. He was a little disappointed, however, when it led to a storage room, completely devoid of survivors or even zombies. He walked silently through the room, his footsteps echoing on the cement floor. Subconsciously, he picked up a led pipe, realizing its potential zombie killing power, and tapped it on the floor as he walked. He had just rounded a corner and reached what appeared to be a door into the mall, when he realized someone else's footsteps were rebounding off the walls. Leaning the pipe against the wall, he picked up a fire extinguisher from a box on the wall. Holding it above his head, Disco edged along the wall until he reached a corner. Just as the noise of the footsteps reached their climax, he leaped from behind the corner, causing his stalker to stumble and fall. He swung the blunt object down on the struggling form when a piercing scream caused Disco to stop mid swing as he realized who he was attacking. Flaky lay on the floor frightened and clutching a gun. Tossing the extinguisher aside, he cursed and grabbed Flaky's hand to help her up. "Are you all right? What are you doing here?" He asked.

Flaky tried to stand, but squealed in pain when she put pressure on her foot. Disco quickly rushed to her side and let her lean on him. "Hold still! I think it's sprained. Now what are you doing here?"  
"F-flippy! He needs help, someone's got him pinned down in the food court." She said, between gasps. " I have to help him!"

"Whoah there cowgirl, you're not going anywhere but back to the security room. Just give me the gun and I'll go help Flippy." He said, to reassure her.

"What? A civilian can't get involved in this! It's against regulation!" She said, mildly panicked.

"Well, I'm pretty sure they didn't have Zombies in mind when they wrote the regulations, now did they?" Flaky didn't really have a response for him, and merely looked away as she handed him the gun.

"Do you even know how to use that thing?" She asked, distrusting of Disco bear.

"Of course I do!... sorta." He said, awkwardly, "I've covered wars you know!"

"Covered?" She asked, skeptically.

"It's close enough! Now get back to the security room, I'll handle this." He said, frustrated even more. Flaky shot him one more glance and turned back towards the elevator. Disco could only shake his head and open the door into the mall.

W00t! Chapter three! At eleven at night! And Disco bear finally did something Pervy! On a side note, this story was partially inspired by the fact that I kept taking dirty pictures of the girls in Dead Rising with the camera to score experience points, and realized that it would be something that Disco would totally do. On another side note, this story is also partially inspired by **Happy Tree Fortress ** By Tytoon. It kinda got me wondering what other games would work with HTF. Also, The Mole can see. Go figure, Cro-marmot's dead and Mole can see. I'm a miracle worker!


	4. An Unexpected Enemy

**Author's Note**

You enter a dark room, barely illuminated by the light bulb plainly hanging from the ceiling by an ordinary chain. Closing the door behind you, you walk forward to a small desk where a walkie-talkie is sitting, waiting for you. You go to pick it up, but suddenly, strong hands grab your shoulders and pull you back. Struggling, you manage to toss the attacker backwards, and turn to face them. Horrified, you realize you just survived a zombie attack, but the corpse is still alive, and attempting to get up. In a combination of fury and self-preservation, you stomp on the body until it ceases moving. Just then, as if on cue, the walkie-talkie begins beeping. You pick it up, flicking the switch, and hold it to your ear as a familiar voice echoes over it.

"Heya! It's me, Phoenix! Now I bet you're wondering why I chose to do this for the author's note. Well it all came to me two weeks ago. I was in Barbados, hanging a picture on the wall when I" Aggravated, you shut off the walkie-talkie and place it back on the table, but just as you go to leave, it rings again. Of course, out of curiosity, you pick it up again.

"HEY! Don't hang up on me! It's rude! Anyway, like I was saying, the Egyptian monk told me exactly what to do for the perfect pumpkin soup! And that's why I decided to change studios for today's story, it's in the next one over! Oh, but be careful, I think I left a zombie in there somewhere…."

You stare at the walkie-talkie half-heartedly, and calmly place it on the ground, take a step back, and stomp it into a fine dust before exiting the room. Back in the long hallway, you walk to the next door over and find a sticky note attached to the door. It reads

"Kick back, relax, and enjoy…"

**Disco Rising**

Disco, back in the heart on the Happy Tree Mall, should have been much more surprised when he walked into a mall filled with zombies. But Disco, realizing that screaming and flailing around would probably get him killed, remained calm. Suddenly, the walkie-talkie rang. He clicked it on and waited for Mole to answer. "Hello? Disco? I just wanted to tell ya, you're in the "Paradise Plaza". There's a movie theater, and a few shops, but Flaky told me you're headed toward the food court. Just head north through the park nearby and you're right there!" But Disco honestly didn't care, and was quite quick to hang up.

He used the lead pipe to swing his way through a crowd of undead, when he noticed the second floor of the mall had a coffee shop. "Hmm, I could use a little pick me up…" He thought and calmly ascended the stairs whilst knocking away any random zombies that approached.

Inside the shop, the Columbian Roastmasters Coffee House to be exact, Disco was relieved to find it was devoid of zombies. Unfortunately, it was also devoid of employees, leaving him to make his coffee himself. He found something called "Coffee Creamer" and mixed a couple of them up in the blender. It was tasty, but made him a little jittery. Still nonchalant as ever, Disco walked over to the edge of the shop, overlooking the first floor, and thought a bit about what he had just done. "I just stole a drink, and no one cares." He thought looking down onto the awnings of a shop below him "I could do anything I want and no one will care, even…" and then it hit him. Taking a couple paces back, he ran at the railing and leaped, landing on the awning and bouncing off into a pool of water that surrounded the shop below. He landed harder than he would have liked, and needed a moment to adjust, feeling around to grasp onto something and pull himself up. But, he grabbed the handle of something instead, and lifted it up to examine it.

"A… Katana? What the fu-" Then, he realized something. "Oh shit! That bear, he's uh, pinned down in the, umm where was it, food court! The food court!" He pulled out the map Mole had given him and looked at the area around the food court. "Right, I've just gotta head through the park."

And with that he stowed his katana along with the lead pipe, and broke into a sprint. He had made it through the paradise plaza and halfway into the park when he stopped, and took a second to think "Am I running, faster than usual?" He said aloud, but shrugged it off and took another swig of his coffee.

Not seconds before he entered the food court, Disco saw Flippy taking cover behind a counter. But before he could call his name, bullets whizzed by his head, just clipping part of his afro. Looking up at the food court, he saw Russell, the bizarre otter, holding a small machine gun, standing on top of a welcome sign. The sign had been done over to give it a cowboy theme, and resembled the second floor of a wooden building in a cowboy shoot out. Russell had spotted Disco early, but only had a few bullets left in the clip when he arrived. He got ready to reload when, panicked, Disco ducked down next to Flippy. "What the hell are you doing here?" He asked, furious.

"Flaky sent me as back up." Disco said, holding up the pistol.

"Well, fine. I'm gonna need you to get behind him, into the food court itself," he said pointing "I'm gonna cover you, and he'll be busy reloading, ready?"

"What? You mean now?"

"Yes, NOW!" Flippy said, and popped up over the barricade firing. Disco ran wildly, and surprisingly wasn't fired on. Now behind him, Disco had a much better shot at Russell without the welcome sign blocking his body. Firing at the otter, he landed several hits, causing Russell to turn and return fire. "You! You shouldn't get involved with something you can't handle, Disco!" He yelled to the bear.

The machine gun rattled off several shots, but Disco was too quick, and knocked over a nearby table to shield himself. The bullets merely dug into the table, aggravating Russell to no end. But Disco wasn't as well shielded as he would hope and Russell spied his bright orange afro sticking up over the barricade and fired into it. The bullets could only muss his hairspray-laden afro, and found no solid parts to hit in the exposed hair. "Dammit! There's no brain in the freakin' fro!" Russell finally shouted, causing Disco to realize what was going on.

Pulling a small hand mirror from his pocket, he noticed his ruined afro and gasped. In a blind rage, Disco rolled from his barrier and fired several shots at Russell, staggering him. Then, lighting quick, he darted to a ladder leading up to his attacker's perch and soon enough was face to face with Russell. The otter attempted to fire, but a few shots from Flippy below distracted him long enough to allow Disco to simply kick the gun right out of his hand. Whipping the Katana out from concealment, Disco held the razor-edged blade to Russell's neck and spoke quietly and calmly.

"Now, pal, you're gonna tell me what the hell's going on here. Normally I'd kill anyone who'd shoot my afro, but here's what I'm gonna do. You're gonna answer every question I've got and maybe, just maybe I won't slit your throat." Russell, went slowly to grab something out of his pockets, but his hands didn't escape the bear's quick eyes. "Hands up! Think I'm stupid, do you? Raise 'em!"

Russell brought his hands up slowly still clenched in fists, making no mistakes to aggravate the photographer. "That's it, good now open up, don't want you hiding anything."

Russell opened his hands, and out of his palms dropped two metal canisters. Realizing they were grenades, Disco leapt to another end of the platform, while Russell took advantage of the moment to flee. When the explosion passed, Disco was by himself, and Russell had escaped. His own fits of cursing were broken by a call from below. "Hey! Where is he?" Flippy shouted from the food court floor.

"He escaped, but not before he tried blowing me up!" said Disco, and leapt down to his level, "why didn't you tell me he had grenades?"

"He never tried using them on me." Flippy said plainly, "Now if you excuse me.."

"Actually, there are a few things I'd like to know, now that I saved your ass. Who is this guy, and what connection does he have to all this?" Disco asked, pulling out his camera and displaying the image of the older bear.

"Where, here did you take that?"

"Ah, ah, ah. My question first, who is this and what connection does he have to all this?" Disco asked smugly.

"God, you're serious aren't you? Fine, this is Dr. P Barnaby. He was involved in an incident a few years back that we believe is linked to this 'infection'. Now, tell me where you took this!" Flippy was clearly getting aggravated.

"One more thing, I come along to meet the good doctor, 'k Cool Cat?" Disco said, clearly enjoying testing his patience.

"ARGH! Fine! whatever, I don't care. Now if you would please?"

"Took it near the entrance plaza, he couldn't have gone too far, y'know?"

"Wonderful, let's go."

The two bears were able to easily fight their way to the entrance plaza. The zombies were numerous, but no match for two armed men. Finally reaching the entrance plaza, Flippy told Disco to stay by the entrance. "You're not really a 'people' person, and I don't need you aggravating Dr. Barnaby.

"Sure, whatever, have fun with the old coot." Disco said and began to brush his ruined afro

Flippy walked calmly over to a bookstore, the metal security grate closed around it and Dr. Barnaby seated inside. He tapped on the glass to get his attention. The old bear set aside the book he was reading and walked over to the glass door.

"What? What do you want? Leave me alone!" He said, waving his cane at Flippy.

"Pop, Pop Barnaby?" Flippy asked

"Yes, that's me. Why do you need to know?"

"My name is Flippy, I'm with the government. We need to ask you a few questions."

"No! I'm staying here where it's safe! Like hell I'm going this out late with these zombies roaming around! Thank you and goodbye!" He said, and promptly turned around.

Flippy, admitting defeat, turned back to Disco. "So? How'd it go with the old geezer?" asked Disco

"He's not coming until we can guarantee safe passage through the mall. And unfortunately, we can't provide such a promise until tomorrow morning. It is getting late and we can't risk traveling around at night." And with that, Flippy turned to exit the entrance plaza.

"Where are you going?"

"Back to the security room. You'd do best to join me."

But Disco didn't follow. He stood right where Flippy left him for a good few minutes, and decided to himself exactly what he would do. "If there are other survivors, maybe they'll know about this, or maybe I'll be famous when this story hits the headlines if I rescue them. Yeah! I'm gonna make the news baby" He laughed aloud and held the walkie-talkie to his ear, "Hello, Mole?"

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hah! Yet another excellent chapter is shipping out! Now for some explanations. I bet most of you are wondering where that katana came from. Well, in the game Dead Rising, there's a katana hidden for who knows why on an awning outside the Columbian Roastmaster's shop. When Disco leaped onto the awning, he knocked the katana off. Also, the drink Disco mixed up actually did make him run faster. You can blend different items together in the coffee shop and 2 "Coffee Creamers" make a speed-boosting quickstep drink. The next few chapters are going to be based around rescuing survivors, but I won't include any OC's yet. However, if anyone would like to volunteer an OC now so I know what to work with, please go ahead. I'm going to need: a cult leader, a crazed Female, about 6 or seven damsels in distress, four or five guys to be rescued, a long haired punk, two Japanese tourists, and a boyfriend and girlfriend. Just don't invent a character to fill any of these roles. In fact, don't suggest what the character should be, just let me choose, I'll tell you, and feel free to object. So go ahead and start PMing(Or reviewing) me, world. PHOENIX OUT!


	5. First Survivors

**Author's Note**

Cheezie Weezie! You folks really step up to the challenge when an author asks you for characters, don't ya? I've been receiving quite a few submissions, but I still need your help folks. Here's an updated list. I Still need: 5 or 6 damsels in distress, four or five guys to be rescued, two Japanese tourists, and a boyfriend and girlfriend. Also, this is important for anyone considering submitting an OC for the "Japanese tourist" Roles. I NEED THEM NOW! Seriously, those characters are appearing in the next chapter, along with another OC. Just remember, don't create an OC to fill any role. But, leaving that behind, back to the story.

**Disco Rising**

"Hello? Disco? What's going on?" Mole asked through the walkie-talkie

"I need your help, I'm setting out to rescue some survivors, since I can't follow this scoop until tomorrow morning. Have you seen anyone?" Disco replied.

"Actually, I found two guys holed up in a women's clothing store in the Al Fresca Plaza. It's nearby your current location."

"Right, I passed through it on the way here. Thanks, mole."

"Any time pal, any time." And the line went dead, so Disco clicked his Walkie-Talkie off and headed out.

.................

Cuddles clutched his baseball bat tightly, waiting, almost anxious, to see some zombies bust through the barricade they had set up. His best friend Toothy however, was anything but calm. He sat by the rations, psychotically gnawing on cookies to distract himself from the danger they were in. "Dude, what are we doing here? This is insane! Shouldn't we be out looking for help?" He cried out

Cuddles groaned, clearly impatient with the beaver "God, shut up! We've been over this! We don't leave the safe house unless we need food! What if we got swarmed, and never found anybody!? How do you know anyone else is even alive!?!?" Almost on cue, a foot kicked in the shoddy-looking barricade. It had done just enough to stop zombies from getting in, but was no match for an actual human.

"God dammit! Just what I need, more assholes messing things up!" Cuddles said, and charged the figure in the doorway. He was caught off guard, however, as a blunt metal object clocked him straight in the eyes. When he came to his senses, a bear with a bright orange afro was standing over him holding a metal pipe, and out of the corner of his eye, he could see Toothy still cowering behind a table.

"You done screwing around, punk?" Disco asked the rabbit.

"Yeah whatever, just get it over with and kill me already."

"I'm not gonna kill you, I'm here to talk. And I can get you to safety."

"Fine! Talk, kill, I don't care."

"What do you know about this whole 'Happy Tree Town' incident?"

"What, you mean the zombie apocalypse? I thought it was happening everywhere."

"No, just here. "

"But, Toothy said…" Disco's eyes shot over to the Beaver in the corner. Toothy, realizing the attention was on him came out from behind the table and walked over to Disco. Making sure not to make eye contact, he nervously began explaining.

"I, uh, one night I mean, I heard some guy walk by the barricade and I poked my head out. Cuddles was asleep. And noticed it was some Spanish guy, an otter. He was mumbling about 'Santa Cabeza' or something and I remembered it from my geography class. It was an old Mexican village, but it's a ghost town now, so I assumed it's where the infection started."

Disco, enticed by the information, moved closer and asked, "what else? What else do you know?"

"uh, nothing actually. In fact, that's just a guess at best. S-sorry…" Toothy said, looking away.

Cuddles stood up, and found his baseball bat. Clutching it defiantly, he stared Disco straight in the eyes. "Hey, you said you could get us to safety, right? Well, get talking! We told you what you needed to know. Now, fess up!"

"Fine, I can get you to safety. But we have to fight our way there." Said Disco, pulling his hand gun from his pocket. He turned to face Toothy and, grabbing the weapon by the barrel, held it out to him. "Take this, you'll need it."

Toothy, shocked, asked "But, won't you need it?"

"I can handle, but you look like the kind of guy who'd prefer to fight zombies from a distance." And Toothy took the gun, holding it nervously.

Disco led the two out of the Al Fresca Plaza and into the food court. Cuddles, who fought off the undead easily with his bat, followed close behind. Toothy, who often stopped out of sheer terror, had to sprint after them when they reached the doors to the park, completely forgetting to use his gun. It was dark, around 11 at night, and without the lights from the mall it was difficult to navigate through the park, but the trio was making it just fine. Just fine, until the bright headlights and blaring rap music caught them completely off guard. Disco heard malicious laughter and rolled to one side as the military jeep barreled down at them. Cuddles and Toothy just ducked out of the way as well, and quickly ran up to Disco, still lying on the ground.

"Holy shit! Who are they?" Cuddles asked as the jeep turned, allowing them to see their attackers clearly. Seated in the jeep were two green raccoons, clad in prison uniforms. They were completely identical, their only difference being a fedora on the one driving the jeep. The other one was sitting in the passenger seat, holding a baseball bat. There is a third seat in the jeep, for a machine gunner, but the two raccoons pay it no mind. Toothy and Cuddles helped the bear up, and Toothy nervously asked him

"Uh, Mr. Bear? Are you okay?"

"Fine, I'm fine. The one with the bat took a swing at me, only hit my shoulder. But we can take 'em down."

"What? Why? We don't need these psychos harassing us! Besides, they've turned their attention to that couple! We can get away!" Cuddles said, and pointed over to a pink chipmunk and purple deer trying to escape the convicts. The jeep is too fast, however, and they catch up to them. The raccoon with the bat clocked the deer over the head, and kept on driving. The deer's head splits open, and his body slumps to the ground. The chipmunk is horrified with what has happened, and crouches down weeping at the deer's body. "Get away? These freaks just killed that man! We at least have to save the girl! Besides, I've gotta get through this mall myself. And I'd prefer it if I could do so without getting clubbed again!" Disco said, aggravated with Cuddles.

"Well, what the hell are we supposed to do?"said Cuddles, just starting to doubt their escort to safety.

"We split up, Toothy, distract them with the gun. Aim to kill, but really you're just gonna draw attention. Cuddles and I will get around and ambush the jeep. Got it?" He asked, but before they could respond, he continued "Good, get ready. HEY YOU RETARDED CONS!" He shouted, and pushed Toothy forward, into their line of sight.

Meanwhile, Lifty, the raccoon with the bat, laughed wildly at the murder of the deer, whose name was Mime. Shifty, the one in the driver's seat, had nothing to laugh about, and kept quiet. "Hey, wassa matter bro? You're still not worried about Caramel, are ya? Forget about it, she's here, and soon enough she'll figure out where we are. Just keep blasting this song over the jeep. She knows it's our favorite!" Lifty asked his brother.

Shifty muttered something under his breath, and Lifty asked "What was that?"

"I said you're a fucking idiot Lifty!" He screamed, his voice bathed in rage. "She's fucking dead! There's no doubt! And look at us! We're still the same retarded cons we always were. You think she'd be proud? She loved us like fucking brothers." He sobbed a little at the end; the last sentence seemed devoid of anger.

"Shifty, come on."

"No you come on, she was supposed to meet us here six hours ago. She's dead. We shoulda went look-"

And that's when Disco's taunt hit their ears. The jeep whirled around in the direction of the noise, and the two saw the purple beaver "Hey, this punk's gotta death wish, Shifty!"

"Well, let's kick his ass Lifty!" He said and drove full speed at the beaver.

Toothy, of course, panicked and fired the gun wildly. The bullets bounced off the reinforced steel of the jeep, but one bullet managed to find its target, and tore through Lifty's right ear. He screamed in pain and when his brother realized what was going on, he slammed on the brakes and shouted at him.

"That Purple freak's packing heat! Get on the gun you idiot! Light him up!"

Lifty scurried around the side of the jeep and positioned himself on the mounted turret. The raccoon took his time aiming at the beaver, but suddenly a sharp pain tore through his back. Disco had crept up behind and landed a killing blow with this katana, tearing straight through Lifty's spine. The corpse tumbled off the jeep, and the commotion caused Shifty to turn. Horrified at the bear who had just slain his brother, he slammed the jeep in reverse, but didn't notice Cuddles hop into the passenger seat. He struggled to grab the wheel from the con, and ended up throwing the jeep into drive. Shifty, his full attention turned on the rabbit, punched furiously at Cuddles, until the hijacker, woozy from the repeated blows, tumbled off the jeep. But with his eyes focused on the attack, Shifty didn't realize his ride was headed straight towards a park tree. The impact of the resulting crash sent him flying into the tree itself, shattering his spine. Meanwhile, Toothy, having witnessed the crash and believing both brothers to be dead, walked over to the sobbing pink chipmunk to comfort her.

"Are you alright?" He asked, and held a hand out to help her up.

"I'm fine. But they, those monsters killed him, they killed my boyfriend!" She took his hand and started crying again.

Toothy, worried, tried again to comfort her "It's, uh, it's alright. Don't worry! We killed those psychos. They won't hurt anyone else. By the way, I'm Toothy. And that's my friend Cuddles over there, and that's Disco, the nut job who organized the 'attack' "

She sniffed away her tears, and looked up smiling "I'm, Giggles, pleasure to meet you."

"Well Giggles, we can get you to a safe house. If you come along"

While Toothy comforted Giggles, Disco walked over to the crashed jeep and snapped a few pictures of what he believed to be Shifty's corpse. Imagine his surprise when the "dead man" lifted his head up, groaning.

"Please," he said, his voice distressed at his own death. "Please, I know you're happy you killed me and my brother. But please, do me one last favor. Tell that girl I'm sorry, she and her boyfriend just got caught in my fit of rage. And please, if you see Caramel, tell her Lifty and Shifty are sorry. She might be dead by now, but if there's even a slight chance she's alive, I want her to know Lifty and Shifty are sorry they couldn't keep their promise. And we're sorry for our life of crime."

"Caramel, who's Caramel? What were you two doing here?" Disco asked, but Shifty's head hung once again. He lifted the convict's head up to face him, and realized that he was dead. Cuddles walked up to Disco, curious to why he was holding a dead body.

"What's going on, was that guy just talking?" asked Cuddles

"Just the rambling of a dying man," He lied. Just then, his walkie-talkie buzzed, and he held it up to his ear.

"Disco, it's Mole. The Space Coaster ride in the Wonderland plaza is out of control, I need you to check it out."

"Sure thing, Disco out," he said, and turned to Cuddles, "Listen pal, the safe house I told you about, it's in the security room of the Paradise Plaza, it should be easy to get to there from here. Keep the weapons and protect the girl."

"What about you?"

"I've got another scoop to follow."

-----------------------------------------

Booya!!! Chapter five! And we've already got a glimpse of an OC! Oh, and by the way, another OC will be in the next chapter. Some of you may be able to guess who it is already. Also, some of you Dead Rising fans will notice that I gave Burt and Aaron (Cuddles and Toothy's characters) a little more knowledge than the had in the game. I jsut thought I'd make their characters a little more interesting. Well, goodnight and have a pleasant tomorrow!


	6. Rhyme Tyme and Perfect English

**Author's Note**

Um, I honestly have nothing to say right now, maybe at the end. Enjoy!

**Disco Rising**

Disco walked slowly, trying not to trip over anything, or run into any zombies in the wonderland plaza, because, it being around midnight, the mall lights had shut off. It was almost like a giant theme park, littered with toys and playground equipment on the bottom floor, and a towering mountain of machinery stood in the center of it, The Space Coaster. Multiple cars shaped like rockets whirled around the blue-glowing coaster, the only illumination in the plaza. Disco, managing to make it up the steep staircase, found the control panel for the ride. He reached out to hit the stop button, but realized the key for the ride had been removed. Suddenly, a hideous, wild laughter echoed through the park, and Disco turned to find a creature of pure nightmares.

A green deer, wearing a clown costume grinning madly at him and staring the bear down. His face was caked with thick clown makeup, and blood. In each of his hands he held a small chainsaw, handles attached to the ends making them easy to hold. "What are you doing there, friend?"He laughed, his voice high pitched and wild.

Disco, immobilized by fear, held on to the railing of the ride, clutching until his knuckled turned white. "Trying to shut off the ride? I can't let you do that, gramps. If the ride shuts off, the zombies come back, and that won't be any fun at all." He stared at Disco for a few seconds, and threw his head up laughing and began juggling his chainsaws madly.

Then he stopped, and looked at Disco curiously "Why aren't you laughing? Everyone used to laugh at me, I was a walking punch line, but not anymore" His voice was melancholy, but still high pitched "Me and my cousin Mime used to make all the children smile, but when the zombies came, everyone DIED! Mime ran away with his sweetheart and left me all alone!" He cheered up and juggled the chainsaws some more. Disco, still terrified, began to inch sideways along the railing.

"So I made this happy ride to bring everyone back! And pretty soon Mime and Giggles will come back! And all the children will love the Rhyme Circus!!" Finally Disco made a break for it, leaping over the gap of the roller coaster just as a car came speeding by. Rhyme frowned and tossed a throwing knife at him. Disco just managed to duck it, but the knife found a target in a nearby zombie. The ghoul, previously a police officer, slumped over dead. Disco realized the opportunity and lunged at the body. Fishing in its pockets, he found a handgun and fired at the clown. Rhyme was too fast, though, and blocked the bullets by holding the chainsaws over his body. "Sorry gramps, no such luck," He laughed, "Want a balloon?" He chuckled and filled up a bright red balloon about two feet in diameter, and pushed it at Disco. But before his could hit him, he shot it in midair, releasing a thick yellow gas.

Disco began hacking wildly, and felt a sharp pain in his shoulder. He tugged on it and realized the clown had thrown another knife at him. "Like the balloon, gramps? It's my special laughing gas? Want another?" said Rhyme, already blowing up another.

"Shit! This stuff is concussion gas! But, it works both ways, doesn't it you freak?" Disco said, and threw the bloody knife at Rhyme's balloon, causing it to pop in his face. The thick yellow gas spread all over and he began coughing himself. Taking advantage of the moment, Disco fired a clip from the handgun into Rhymes exposed chest. The bullets dug deep into his body, causing him to stop moving entirely, and drop his still running chainsaws down in front of him. The twisted smile faded as he fell forward onto the two whirring chainsaws. Upon impact, they tore viciously into his body, but instead of screaming, he exploded with laughter. The ungodly laughter became slower and slower, until it faded into a low gurgle as the clown breathed his last breath. Disco walked disgusted up to the Rhyme's corpse, and flipped him over, nearly vomiting. But in the pool of blood and organs, he found the key to the ride, and grabbed one of his chainsaws, switching it off and storing it. He then approached the console, and, praying silently, he put the key in and switched the ride off. A cart slowed to a stop with a blue anteater wearing a mall security jacket on board. He was pale blue, but not naturally, as one could tell. He slowly stepped off of the ride and stared at the corpse of the clown.

"So you killed him?" He asked

"No choice, he attacked me, and took people hostage on the ride." Disco responded.

"Not people, just me. Sniffles, mall technician for the space coaster ride." He held out a hand.

"Disco Bear, photographer. Now I can get you to safety. We've barricaded off the security room, we can get in through the paradise plaza."

"Paradise plaza? I know I shortcut there. I worked on building a few additions to the mall, and made a secret passage in the women's bathroom, just for kicks"

Suddenly, the walkie-talkie rang once again. Disco clicked it on, and Mole's voice beckoned him once again.

"Disco, you're in the wonderland plaza right? There's a bookstore on the second floor where a family of tourists are hiding, if you wanna check it out."

"Thanks mole, hey sniffles, up for a little rescue?" he asked, holding out the handgun.

"Sure, why not. The more survivors the better right? Sniffles said, and took the gun.

The two made their way over to the bookstore, also darkened by the lack of lights in the mall. Squinting in the darkness, Disco could make out a small family, an elderly couple and a young girl. Oddly enough, the parents were both chipmunks and the daughter a squirrel. He approached, but the family saw him coming near and fled, screaming something in Japanese. They turned a corner and Disco followed, trapping them in with their backs to the wall.

"What's wrong with you people? Calm down! I'm just here to help!" Disco tried reasoning with them, but the young girl only screamed and tossed a book a him. "Great, they don't speak English…" Then, Disco looked down at the book thrown at him, it was a small Japanese translation book. He thumbed through the pages and began speaking poor Japanese to them "I no zombie! I Disco, photograph taker. I know safe place." He said.

The elderly couple turned to each other and spoke in their native tongue "Do you hear that, another survivor! And he can get us to safety" The old woman said.

The old man looked at her disapprovingly "Are you serious? He's clearly mentally ill! Who would come to this hell hole for a story?"

"Well, you thought it would make a great holiday, idiot old man!" She said

"Mama, Papa, maybe he's not crazy, he's got another man with him. A mall security man." The girl protested.

Disco, becoming impatient asked them "Come? No come? Make up mind quickly!"

"Fine, let's go with him, but be wary of his tricks." The old man said.

"Do you think he knows we don't trust him?" The old woman asked

"No, not a chance, his Japanese sucks" The two turned and bowed apologetically,

"Very sorry for the wait, we will come, yes? I am Mr. Lee and this is my wife Mrs. Lee and our daughter Perfect." The man said.

Disco, only catching their names and the yes, turned to Sniffles. "All right, pal, show us this shortcut you were talking about."

"Certainly, follow me." The anteater led Disco out of the bookstore and he gestured for the family to come along. The two men were able to easily clear a path for the elderly couple and the young daughter as they escaped to the security room.

--------------------------------------------

Alright! I love that clown fight! I'd just like to take this time to give special thanks to Meowth's Toon Dragon and Kitten630 for their OCs Rhyme and Perfect. You guys rock, and I'm not just saying that!


	7. Back In The Security Room

**Authors Note**

Wow, I'm just really proud about how many of you people are loving this story. This chapter right here will won't have a lot of action, and instead will be more of a reflection. A break in the madness to analyze the characters introduced so far. Oh, and as for the people who are submitting OCs that I haven't gotten to, rest assured that I'll be using everyone submitted so far somehow in the story. But enough of my senseless chatter, please enjoy,

**Disco Rising**

Back in the security room, Flippy and Flaky sat by the monitor screens. Flippy, just returning from the mall, curiously asked Flaky as she typed away at her laptop, "So, any luck? Have we patched into HQ yet?"

Flaky frowned and turned to him "No, there's some kind of signal blocker inside the mall. I can't even reach them by cell phone."

"Well, looks like we're in this ourselves. I guess tomorrow after we escort the professor here, we'll set out to find what's going on."

"I guess that's our best bet."

Just then, Disco had arrived through the air ducts. After dusting himself off, he helped the old couple and their daughter out, and finally Sniffles. The Mole, who had assigned himself watch duty over the ducts and the welded door, lit up when he saw his fellow security worker.

"Sniffles, you son of a gun, you made it! Ol' Disco helped you out, didn't he?" He said.

Sniffles sighed, "More than you can imagine. You remember Rhyme?" As the two men chatted away, Disco helped the Japanese family into the security room, and into the break room where most of the other survivors were waiting. After they had found their way in, Disco turned his attention to Flippy and Flaky.

"What's the word? You were trying to contact someone?"

"Yes," Flippy said, aggravated, "If you have to know, we're trying to contact headquarters. Remember when I told you we were with the government? We're HS agents"

"Homeland security," Disco asked, curious, "You mean this is some kind of, terrorist attack?"

"We don't know, and we can't contact headquarters, so now we're stuck here." Flaky said, her tone concerned. With those words, Disco's face lit up.

"You need a ride? I've got one."

"What do you mean, bear?" Flippy asked, Disco still testing his patience.

"I have a helicopter coming, with a reliable pilot. It's how I got here, and in three days it's how I'm getting out. I'd be happy to let you hitch a ride, on one condition."

"God, what is it now? " Flippy was clearly reaching the end of his patience with Disco

"I have your permission to print this story, and I get help you guys out."

Flippy was shocked by Disco's request, "Tha-that''s all you want? And you're sure this pilot is reliable?"

"Totally, I'd trust him with my life."

Flippy turned to Flaky, "Alright, if we're going to stay here for three days, we'll need supplies. Food, blankets, and the like, so I'll head out, and be back in an hour or so. There's a camping store and a few food shops nearby." As Flippy turned to leave, Flaky's soft voice caught him

"Flippy, be careful."

"I will." And with that he climbed back into the air ducts. Disco turned to Flaky, who was now occupying herself with a game of solitare. "Hey, are you gonna be alright in here?"

"I'll be fine. If I get too tired there's a couch in here to rest on." She was right, so Disco left her alone in the monitor room and went to check on the survivors. The break room itself could probably house many survivors in the four compartments it was divided into, though not very comfortably. Cuddles, Giggles, and Toothy sat in one of the storage rooms. He entered to check on them. It was late, but two of them couldn't find the peace of mind to sleep. Giggles wept quietly to herself, and Toothy sat nearby. Cuddles was sound asleep on the floor of the room. Disco, remembering what the clown had said to him, walked up to Giggles, and knelt down to her eye level.

"Giggles, did you know someone named 'Rhyme'?" He asked, his voice patient and careful

"Oh god, Rhyme, what happened to him?" said Giggles, still sobbing.

"He, he went insane and attacked me. I'm sorry, but I had no choice."

"You, you killed him?" She asked, and broke down crying "You killed him!"

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" Disco said, frantically trying to console her, "I didn't want to, but he'd had taken Sniffles hostage"

"No, it's not your fault. It's mine. Mime and I abandoned him. When the zombies came, they attacked his audience during a performance. Mime tried to convince him to run, but he kept saying 'The show must go on'. We realized we were running out of time and ran. We ran and left him all alone with those monsters and he became one!" She began crying uncontrollably over the loss of her love and her good friend. Toothy was just as upset as her, but tried to remain calm, and console her,

"Uhh, Giggles, didn't you say Rhyme refused to go with you? So, it's like he went insane the moment the zombies arrived, there was nothing you could have done. Besides, wouldn't, uh, y'know, death put him out of his misery?"

Giggles sniffed back her tears, "I, suppose you're right. Mime and Rhyme are somewhere better off right now."

Toothy smiled when giggles finally stopped crying, almost surprising himself that he could handle the situation so well. Disco gave him a smile and a nod, and walked out of the room. "Hmm," he thought to himself as he laid down on a cot in the security room, "Maybe these people are worth saving." Suddenly, he felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned to find Perfect, the young squirrel from the Japanese family, with something in her hands. She quickly thrust it onto his lap, and looked away. Disco looked down at what she had given him, it was a candy bar. "Hey, thanks! Oh, I mean" Disco pulled the Japanese dictionary from his pocket and found the words he needed "Merusi, shoujo."

"Uerukamu, toppyoushimonai hito." She said, and walked back to the room where her parents were sleeping. Disco smiled, but then did a little double-take

"Wait, what'd she just say?" Disco asked himself, and began thumbing through the dictionary to find her words while eating the candy bar. While he sat, a voice called from the AC room.

"Disco? You in there? It's Flippy, I need your help." Disco got up and walked into the room, finding Flippy moving a box of supplies out of the duct. He walked up to it and went to grab a soda from the stash of food, but Flippy grabbed his hand. "What?" He asked, surprised.

"Look," he said, taking the soda from Disco's hand and stepping back from the box. He tossed it around in his hands while he talked, "About your story. You see, this is a huge mess. The government is trying to keep it under wraps, but there's no way that'll happen, what with all these survivors you keep finding. You're a real hero, you know that?"

"What's your point?" Disco asked, skeptical of Flippy's words.

"Basically, there's gonna be stuff you can print, and stuff you can't. Understand?"

"Crystal clear."

"Look, I'm sorry for being so, inhospitable, but this whole thing has caught me off guard. God, zombies, it's just so, unreal." He said, and finally handed the soda back to Disco. Without another word, he picked up the box of supplies and walked into the monitor room. Disco called after him "Hey, do you need any help?"

"Nah, I got it." Flippy said without turning. Placing the supplies on the ground, he turned to Flaky, still at her computer. Flaky looked back at him, and pouted a little. "You know, it's not really fair that you get to run out and have all the fun."

"You wanna try fighting off these zombies?"

"No, not particularly." She said, "But you really need to get some sleep."

"You go first, we'll take turns. How's four hours sound?"

"Sounds great." Flaky smiled and went over to the small couch in the monitor room. The day had been so eventful that she was asleep in minutes. Flippy waited until Flaky had fallen asleep before taking out a cigarette and leaning against the wall. Flaky always nagged him about them, saying "Those things will kill you." Flippy, given the current circumstances, found that little phrase quite funny. As he lit it, Disco walked in, sipping the soda. "Hey, you alright?" He asked

"Fine, just gotta unwind sometimes."

"Yeah, understand how you feel." Disco laughed, and sat down in the chair in front of the monitors, then put his feet up on the desk.

Flippy finally asked "Aren't you going to go to sleep?"

"I'm fine." Disco said, and took another swig of the soda. While Disco had his back turned, Flippy glanced over at the sleeping Flaky. She was lying away from him, the position giving him a perfect view of her underside. He stared for a good few minutes when Disco broke his 'concentration'

"I saw that," Disco said. Flippy turned to the photographer, and saw he was still facing the monitors.

"What do you mean?" Flippy said, blushing a little.

"Nothing, nothing. Just trying to see if you're on guard."

"Oh, okay then." Flippy said, and turned back to the still sleeping Flaky. Disco chuckled a bit to himself and folded up the small hand mirror he used to spy on the other bear. "Heh, cute couple." He thought.

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Hah! Another great chapter in the bag! I thought this would be a good break to give some of the characters some more depth, and I like to think it worked well. Oh, and for anyone who actually speaks Japanese, I used an online translator for the Disco and Perfect exchange. It's supposed to say

Disco: Thanks, little girl

Perfect: You're welcome, crazy man.

Sorry if it didn't come out properly in Japanese. And hold on to your hats, because tomorrow morning at 6 o' clock(Story time, not actual time) there's gonna be a big fight!

Oh, and by the way, all you readers out there PLEASE REVIEW! I want to know your opinions!C'mon! This thing is getting way more hits and visitors than reviews, so I know you're out there! Even those without an account can review, anonymous reviews are welcome!


	8. Russell Strikes Again!

**Author's Note**

Well, here we are again. Now I bet you're wondering why I keep adding these author's notes onto my stories and then tell you I have nothing to say, well, I get lonely. WHY DON'T YOU CALL ME ANY MORE?!?!?!?!!?! Whoah, sorry about that. I'm just gonna keep writing my story now…..

**Disco Rising**

It was early morning, about six am, and the security room was hung up with a dull blankness. Flippy and Flaky had taken their turns sleeping, and both were now wide awake. Flaky had resumed her position at the desk, Flippy was leaning against the wall, and Disco, being unable to sleep, sat contently on the small couch. Flaky, silently drifting out of focus, flipped through the monitor channels when something jolted her back into reality. "Guys! Quick, take a look at this!" She said gesturing towards the monitor screens. On one screen, a man, easily identifiable as Russell, was dragging Dr. Barnaby out of the bookstore where he had spent the night. The professor had fought viciously, but he was only an old man, and couldn't escape the fit, young otter hell bent on pulling him from his make-shift safe house.

Flippy, already itching for action, and found his hand gun, and was ready to go. Disco, still needing

information, was close behind him, "Hey," he called "I need to know something, now!

"What is it now?" Flippy said, readying himself to enter the vents.

"Who is Russell, and what connection does he have to all this?"

"Russell, that otter? You know him?"

"Nothing but his name, he introduced himself when I arrived. I didn't think too much about him until he attacked us."

"We don't know, but he obviously has some connection to this, just as much as the doctor. But, we probably aren't going to negotiate with him, and if we can't get the Dr. Barnaby from him, neither of us will get our questions answered. Now, are you gonna back me up here?"

"Do I have your permission, commander?" Disco asked sarcastically. Flippy merely shook his head and climbed into the vents. Before Disco could follow, Mole stopped him.

"Hey, you know where you're headed right?" He asked

"Sure! Not really, but do you?" Disco said back, aggravated and ready to leave.

"Well, the shutter blocking off Paradise Plaza from the Entrance plaza has been opened up, so you might want to head through there. Tell Flippy too, I'm not sure he knows either."

"Wonderful Mole, see ya later." Said Disco, climbing into the vents. But, considering how much he _was _actually helping, Disco called back before he was out of ear shot "Thanks, old man!"

Mole chuckled and sat himself down at his post, "Welcome, sonny." Once Disco caught up to Flippy and explained the situation, they headed out to the entrance plaza. Disco and Flippy, while they entered together, seemed to have completely different motives. While Flippy stuck to the shadows, Disco walked out into the open, camera up to his eye, scanning the area. He readied to snap a picture, when Flippy tackled him behind a sign as a high caliber shot rang out. "Shit, what's going on?" Disco asked, pulling himself off the ground, but keeping below the sign.

"We've got someone firing off at us from the second floor." Flippy said, pulling the handgun from his pocket. Disco held the camera up to Flippy, and the military bear nodded. Just protruding the lens from over the barricade, he zoomed in on a body hanging from the second floor by its feet. It was Pop, dangling above a crowd of zombies attracted by his scent. His body hung limp, but the camera couldn't make out whether he was dead or unconscious from this distance. Unbeknownst to him, however, not all of the zombies were crowded around the Doctor's dangling body.

"It's the doctor, Russell has him tied up and if we don't get to him quick he's zombie chow!" Disco said, Flippy appeared to be formulating a plan, but his eyes widened as an undead lunged at Disco from behind. Before he could warn him, however, another shot rang out and scooped the zombie's head clean off, and drenched the two bears in blood. Above them, perched over a railing on the top floor, Russell gripped a powerful sniper rifle, the barrel still smoking. He pulled his eye from the scope, and took the pendant around his neck into his palm. Slowly, carefully, he brought the pendant to his lips and kissed the cold silver of it. Clutching it tightly, he whispered to himself "Pachamama"

Back on the ground floor, the two bears were preparing to attack. "Okay, I'm going after Russell, you just worry about staying alive." Said Flippy

"Hey, listen buddy, I don't know if you've realized yet, but I'm the most competent guy you've got around this place, and I'm backing you up." Disco said, his tone defiant.

"Alright, we can flank him. Just keep moving, it'll be hard for him to get a shot off." Flippy said, loading his gun. He pointed to the twin escalators, now defunct, behind him, "I'll go left, you go right, ready?"

"Why do you bother asking that if-"

"Go!" He said, and they both ran out from behind their cover, several shots rang out, but with his back turned, Disco couldn't tell who they were aimed at. Finally, a bullet whizzed by and just clipped his shoulder. Pain shot through his body, but he could keep going, and ducked inside one of the shops that lined the walls of the second floor. Breathing heavily, he flipped open his pocket mirror, and slowly reached out of the shop. In its reflection, he could see Russell holding the enormous rifle, but the reflection took aim, and a bullet tore through the tiny mirror. "Dammit, I can't move an inch without getting my head blown off!" His eyes caught Flippy across the mall, taking advantage of Russell's distraction to run into a closer store and fire quickly. Disco smiled when he realized what this meant, and when Russell turned to fire at the already safe Flippy, he ran into a closer store and fired a few rounds out, drawing the otter's fire once again. They continued taking turns drawing fire from the other until each of the bears are but one store away from Russell's sniper perch. Disco, adrenaline pumping, felt around his pockets for something to attack with. The katana, Rhyme's chainsaw, even Cuddles' baseball bat were all back in the security room. In his rush to leave, all he had taken was the pistol Sniffles had given back to him when they reached the security room. "Alright, here we go!" Disco whispered to himself and ran out at Russell, guns blazing. The shots missed but gave Flippy enough of a distraction to get in close as well. The otter was not stupid, and realized when he was surrounded.

"Alright pal, you're not going anywhere," Flippy said, holding the gun at Russell from only about ten feet away. Disco had gotten even closer, nearly face to face with him. "now just come along peacefully and we can all end this."

"End this? My nightmares have never ended, and neither will yours!" Said Russell, as he grabbed the sniper rifle, clubbing Disco away with it. Flippy fired on him, digging a shot into his shoulder, but Russell turned to return fire with his own pistol, clipping Flippy's leg. They bear collapsed and Disco, still on the floor, attempted to fire at Russell as he escaped, but to no avail as he leaped over the railing and escaped. Disco cursed his own luck, and went to help Flippy, who was grabbing onto the railing to steady himself.

"I'M FINE!" Flippy shouted at the bear while he tried to get up. Every step was like a shotgun blast to the leg. "I'm fine, just worry about the Dr. Barnaby." Disco frowned, but went to help the older bear up. He was unconscious, but still alive.

"Well?" Flippy asked, gesturing to the unconscious Doctor on the ground.

"Well what?

"I'm in no condition to carry him!" Flippy said, aggravated. Disco sighed and took the old man onto his back, carrying him with his arms wrapped around his neck. The three bears, the recent battle and mysterious enemy weighing heavy on two of their minds, headed back to the security room.

…

Back in the security room, Flaky sat, staring at her computer. She could very well have watched the fight unfold on the monitors, but couldn't bear to watch such violence. Especially if Flippy's life was on the line, it would make her too nervous. She jumped out of her seat when the door to the monitor room flew open, and Flippy hobbled in, groaning in agony with every step.

"Oh my god! Flippy, what happened?" She ran up to him, almost in tears.

"I'm fine, just fine. Do..n't.." Flippy's words faded off and he collapsed onto the security room couch. Disco followed shortly after, with Dr. Barnaby on his back.

"Where do you want him? He's heavier than he looks."

Flaky looked over to him for a split second, her face wrought with worry. She turned back to Flippy and knelt by him. "Just, put him in there, the boiler room. Oh god, he's running a fever." Disco placed the old man in the boiler room, a place just large enough to be considered a room, and not a closet, and headed back out to Flaky. She had arranged Flippy's body so he was lying on his back, and she felt his forehead with the back of her hand.

"He's running a serious fever; I think the bullet wound may be infected."

"Infected, like, brain eating infected?"

"No, a simple bacterial infection. We need medical supplies." Flaky said, and finally looked up from Flippy at him.

"What? Me? God damn it! It's always me. Fine, but do you know where we're gonna find medical supplies?" The Mole, who had been watching from the doorway, spoke up.

"Uh, actually, there's a market up in the northern part of the mall, it has a pharmacy. It's still under construction up there, so you'll have to be careful, but the supermarket was opened a little while back, and it should still be open."

Disco's eyes darted between the two, the Mole and Flaky, his mouth open as if to object. But he finally just quieted himself down, and left to find the supermarket, making sure he was armed this time.

----------------------------------------------------

Ah, poor Disco, always having to do everything around here. Oh, and If you're wondering why Russell has that locket and what "Pachamama" means, too bad! You'll find out soon.

Well, that's about it, just another chapter in the bag. Now If you excuse me, I'm gonna fo play Wii!


	9. VANDALS!

**Author's Note**

Being a writer is tough, especially when you write about things you love. For example, I can't play Dead Rising too much while I'm writing this story, because if I go too far, I'll pass key plot points and won't remember when they happen. So enjoy, because I'm giving up a lot for you people!

**Disco Rising**

The northern plaza, as Mole had said, was still under construction, and was slightly more of a hazard itself than the zombies to Disco. Quite a few times while running along the scaffolds for fun, the moldy plywood had broken, or he had slipped and sent the entire structure tumbling over. Yet, by some stroke of luck, Disco had navigated through the maze of construction equipment to the grocery store. It appeared surprisingly well maintained; the shop windows clean, and from outside there appeared to be no zombies.

"Better off keeping it that way" Disco thought as he closed the door tightly behind him. The grocery store was, oddly silent. No life had found its way in, and Disco felt strangely alone. Even with the zombies around there was movement, and the world seemed "Alive", but this was desolate. Suddenly, the walkie-talkie went off, and Disco turned it on to hear Mole's familiar voice.

"Disco, I can see you've made it to Sean's Grocery, good job! You're almost done, just get behind the pharmacy counter, there should be an entrance between the Pharmacy and the butcher's counter. Good luck, see ya in a bit!"

"Thanks gramps!" Disco said clicking off the transceiver and hooking it back on his belt. Disco walked at a hastened pace to the counter, the overall emptiness of really beginning to creep him out, but a tug on the handle revealed the only entrance to the pharmacy locked. The pharmacy counter itself had a glass case around it, and even that was covered with a metal grate to prevent anyone from breaking in.

"Damn, maybe the key's around here somewhere. They must keep a spare, or maybe the owner's alive!" the thought boosted Disco's spirit, and motivated him to "shop" around here longer in hopes of finding another survivor. He passed through the aisles as a child looking for their mother would, walking down the rows of aisles only glancing down them to see a familiar face. Just as he turned from the aisle, a metallic squeaking sound echoed through the halls of the store. Disco stopped, and walked down the aisle in front of him. Slowly, carefully, he walked past the rows of food, trying to piece together what was stalking him. Then, a specter darted past the opposite end of the aisle as he had his back turned, and he pulled a sharp 180 degree turn in the direction of the squeaking sound. But, his eyes caught nothing, and Disco turned back to find his stalker in plain view.

A green squirrel, clad in a green apron, nametag and all stood clenching a shopping cart. Nothing seemed odd about him, save for his one lazy eye, the other twitching violently. What was shocking was the cart he had in his white knuckled grip. Once an ordinary shopping cart, it had razor sharp pieces of metal, knives, axes, even a pitchfork head jammed into it, each caked with blood. Inside this tool of nightmarish design was a young skunk, in her early twenties, laying unconscious in the basket of the cart.

The Squirrel began wheeling the cart towards disco, gritting his teeth and staring daggers at the terrified bear. As he got closer, Disco could read his name tag; Nutty. "VANDALS!" He screamed, "You've come to vandalize my store! My beautiful store!" Disco, still in shock, kept backing away from him, but reached out to reason with him "Please, someone's been hurt, we need medicine!"

"Hurt," Nutty said, letting his grip off the cart, and planting a palm on the skunk's head "HURT? That's just what this little bitch said when she came to vandalize my store!" He shook the still unconscious skunk's head violently as he spoke, but let her go when he seemed to calm down.

"Now listen here, and listen good, punk." He said, waving his finger at Disco, "I DON'T ALLOW VANDALISM IN MY STOOOORE!!!!!!" He screamed at the top of his lungs.

Disco, not wanting to negotiate with the crazed squirrel any longer, broke in to a run down the other end of the aisle. The squirrel was right behind him, panting wildly as he pushed the cart after him. Disco rounded another corner, but to no avail as the squirrel chased him viciously with his murder-cart. Finally, realizing he couldn't outrun the mad manager any longer, pulled out his pistol and fired over his shoulder. The bullets ricocheted around the aisle, yet not one was able to his the squirrel and slow him down. One shell, however, was able to snap one of the insane cart's wheels off, stopping it in its tracks. "Vandal! You've destroyed my property!" Nutty screamed, and, not to be beaten so easily reached into the cart and pulled out a double barreled shotgun tucked away inside the basket.

He fired two shells, but Disco managed to round the corner in time and avoid the scattering pellets. Nutty pulled two more shells out of his apron, and reloaded the gun. Clicking the bullets into place, he held the gun up to his eye and walked towards the end of the aisle. "Now now, punk! Just cooperate and I'll only have to call the police, no need to take the law into my own hands." He said, just reaching the end of the aisle. Suddenly, Disco leapt from his place of concealment, brandishing Cuddles' baseball bat, and swung down hard, hitting Nutty's hands and knocking the gun onto the shop floor. Nutty fell on top of it, desperate to kill the intruder in his shop, and Disco, realizing the danger of the situation, planted a bullet into his back. Nutty gagged, and moaned in pain, but then his dying eyes took on a look of realization. He pulled himself off the gun and slowly stood up, flinging himself at the nearby cash register. He stumbled, and fell on top of the register, clinging madly to it.

"My, my store…. Who will watch my store when I'm gone? My store, my sales, my……customers…." He turned to Disco, staring him dead in the eyes and whispered "Have a nice day…." He collapsed in a heap in front of the register, Disco reached out to examine the body, but suddenly Nutty flung his head up and screamed

"CLEAN UP! REGISTER 6!" And promptly fell back into the pool of blood around his body. Disco shook his head and snapped a picture of the dead manager. He knelt down and reached into the pockets of his apron, finding a ring of keys. He stood, and turned to find the Skunk girl had fallen out of the cart, and was lying, groaning on the floor. Disco walked over, taking the girl's hand to help her up.

"Back in the world of the living, I see?" Disco joked as the girl slowly became conscious. "That crazy squirrel told me you were looking for medicine; maybe we could help each other out?"

The skunk, realizing what was going on, pulled her hand away from Disco, and yelled defiantly at him "No, I don't need your help! This was all your fault anyway! You people ruined Santa Cabeza and started all of this!" And she turned and ran in the opposite direction, but before Disco could pursue, or even call to her, the walkie-talkie went off once again. It was the Mole, of course, this time reporting in on a couple of survivors

"There seems to be a young couple in the shoe store over at The Wonderland Plaza, and one of them seems like he's hurt, you'd better hurry."

"Great, thanks Mole." He said, hanging up the walkie-talkie, "but first," He glanced in the direction of the pharmacy, and twirled the keys around his fingers.

……..

The shoe store was somehow also devoid of zombies, it was large, and one could assume that if someone was hiding in here, the zombies wouldn't go out of their way to try and find them. Disco, finally making his way over there, decided to call into the store, as he was running out of time, Flippy's condition probably worsening. "Hello? Anyone in here?" He shouted.

A soft voice called back "Is someone there? Oh thank god!" The voices owner, a pink fox stepped out into the open, "You have to help, come quickly!" She ran into the back of the store, and Disco, bemoaning that this would take longer than expected, followed her. In the far end of the shoe store, a black cat was sitting, nearby a pile of food. He seemed like he was heavily injured, andhis wounds were dressed sloppily with athletic tape.

"Hey, you're right Flurry, someone came to help." He smiled and looked up at her then turned to Disco "Hi there, and you are?" The cat seemed awfully cheery for someone so hurt.

"Disco B. West, Photographer."

"Nice to meet you Disco, just do me a favor, don't take my picture. I don't want anyone to see me like this." The fox turned to Disco, and pleaded to him.

"This is my boyfriend, Frost. H-he was injured," She said, almost sobbing, "Some psychotic clown attacked us and he was hurt trying to protect me. I tried to bandage his wounds, but I just don't know. Can you tell if he's alright?" Disco eyed the deep gashes and bloodstained rags on the cat and shook his head.

"Well, how do you feel?" Disco asked him

"I, I can't feel anything below my waist. I don't even know how I'm still alive…" Frost's cheery tone slowly became more serious. Disco turned to Flurry with a serious look in his eyes

"Listen, I hate to say this, but I'm no doctor, and I can already tell he's in bad shape. We might just have to leave him,"

"WHAT? No, absolutely not! I won't leave him here to die!" She began to cry, shielding her face from the two.

"Oh, you've done it now, Flurry's all worked up. She won't listen to reason when she's like this. Do me a favor, will you? I just need to see your handgun for a sec." Frost asked, pointing to the gun holstered in Disco's belt. He reached for the gun, but suddenly realized what Frost was planning to do.

"No way pal, we're getting you out of here." Disco whispered, and turned to the sobbing girl, "Hey, listen little lady, I just ran out to get some medicine for someone with a bullet wound, and we might just be able to help your boyfriend out as well."

Flurry's face illuminate at this thought "Really? We can save him?"

"Sure, of course we can," Disco half-lied to the girl. He then walked up to the cat, and, facing the other way, squatted down and gabbed his hands.

"H-hey? What are you doing?" Frost asked, slightly shocked as Disco lifted him up onto his shoulders.

"Well, you said you can't feel anything below your waist, right? Well we've got a long walk ahead of us" said Disco, laughing as Flurry followed close behind.

--------------------

Well, there ya have it! Hey, 10 o clock at night still counts, I submitted this the next day! And another mysterious character is introduced! Oh, and incase you're wondering, Frost was planning on shooting himself so Flurry wouldn't worry about him making it out alive. Speaking of which let's all give a round of applause for jerryassmonkey for their OCs Frost and Flurry! Way to toss in two excellent characters at the last minute, (Really saved my bacon there)

Read and Review Folks, Read and Review...


	10. Machete Man

**Author's Note**

Alright, now I'm sure you've all been waiting for this my loyal fans, all five of you. Another excellent Disco Rising chapter, and it is gonna be sweet! There's gonna be a fight, and, well, I can't give away too much. So, here it is!

**Disco Risng**

Flaky, still refusing to move from Flippy's motionless body, waited for what seemed like an eternity for Disco to arrive, and the fact that he was making a pit stop to save someone else unnerved her even more. But, when he finally arrived with two more people she jumped out from beside her friend anxiously. "Disco, who are these two? Did you get the medicine, where is it?" She bombarded him.

"Hold on, cowgirl, we've got another patient here. I promised his girlfriend here you'd help him out, capiche?" Disco calmly replied, placing Frost on the couch beside Flippy and turning to the other girl "C'mon Flurry, you look like you need some rest, we'll go introduce you to the other survivors."

"I'm fine, I just want to stay with him until he's better. Okay?" Flurry said, sitting down in the chair in front of the monitors, spinning it to face her love. Flaky calmly and quickly disinfected the wound, applying gauze and medical wrap to Flippy's bullet wound, and turned to Frost. She was shocked by the deep gashes penetrating his body.

"Good god, what happened to you?"

"Clowns gone bad, but you can help me out, right?" Frost smiled at her.

"Yes, it doesn't look like anything's infected, we just need to bandage you up some more. Is this athletic tape?"

Frost chuckled and turned his eyes to Flurry, "Yeah, it is. My girl isn't the best, but she means well." And Flurry returned his kind words with a weak smile. Disco, still leaning in the entranceway, felt a hand on his shoulder. Mole stood behind him, and he spoke with a nervous look on his face,

"Disco, I hate to ask you this, but do you think you could maybe, uh"

Disco cut him off, smiling "Who is it and where?"

"Over in the northern plaza, Crislip's home supply. There's some big guy carrying a machete, he's doing a good job staying out of sight, I think he was trained in the military or something. Can you go check it out?"

"Let me get this straight, you want me to find a potentially dangerous and/or mentally deranged discharged soldier with machete?" Disco asked, and Mole responded simply with a nod. He gave a deep sigh and noticed a cup of coffee on the desk nearby. "Hey Flakes, is this fresh?"

"Oh, the coffee? Yes, I just made that pot a couple of minutes ago." She told him while bandaging Frost, and without another word, Disco scooped up the coffee cup and tilted his head back, inhaling the strong, black drink in seconds. He turned and headed towards the vents back into the mall, mumbling under his breath.

Disco was getting good at navigating the mall, and found himself at the northern plaza's water fountain (still under construction, of course), right in front of Crislip's Home Supply. It was a home and garden store, that carried tools and other construction materials. It was an average store, but something horrible had been going on inside of it, something inhuman, as anyone approaching the store could tell from at least thirty feet away. Blood had painted the floors, dying them a crimson red the likes of which had never been seen outside of a battlefield, Disco of course snapped a few pictures as he walked in. He clenched his handgun tightly, also keeping handy a small hunting knife Flippy had retrieved when he left to get supplies. What was most terrifying though, was the bodies, hog tied and strung from the ceiling, each decapitated neatly. Disco almost vomited when he realized that some of the bodies had not yet been zombified. He was only about half way into this house of horrors when a deep voice growled from behind him.

" Name and rank, soldier!" Disco snapped around to see a muscular bear, clad in a hunting jacket with its sleeves torn off. He had blood splattered over his body from head to toe, and was clenching a blood soaked machete as he glared at Disco with fiery red eyes.

"I said name a rank soldier!" He began walking towards Disco, his steps heavy and intimidating. "You can't tell me, can you? You wanna know why? Because you're Viet Cong! Yeah, and I'm gonna teach you a lesson!" He suddenly broke into a run down an aisle next to him, and his voice began to echo from all sides.

"Yeah, heh heh, I'm gonna make you tell me where the guerrilla base is, and by the time I'm finished beating information out of you, you're gonna be _begging _death to come and take your lifeless broken corpse away. NOW DIE!"

Disco finally realized where the sound was, and leaped to the side just in time to dodge the psychotic bear attacking from behind. But his attacker was a trained fighter as well, and soon followed up with another swing Disco just barely managed to avoid. But right when he steadied the gun to fire, his adversary ran off and jumped downward into a heating vent. Disco walked towards the vent, he seemed calm, but was in all honesty shaking from the attack. He had just reached the floor mounted vent, when a metallic clank startled him, and he turned to find a signal flare, spewing out a thick smoke screen. The gaseous fumes choked Disco, leaving him doubled over gasping for breath, when he heard a beastly roar. Ducking, he saw the bear's muscular arm thrust out with the machete with so much force it cracked the wall and wedged itself deep in the wooden walls of the store. The bear struggled to pull out his weapon, and Disco, seeing this as his only opportunity, pulled the hunting knife from his pocket and dug it deep inside the belly of the beast. The bear choked on his own blood, and Disco landed the killing blow by ripping the knife across the bear's abdomen. The smoke had just cleared, and Disco watched in disgust as the bear's entrails began falling out, but in one last dying rage, the bear pulled his machete from the wall and backed up, swinging it wildly before falling backwards onto the crimson-stained floor. Disco, still shaken up over barely winning the fight, snapped a picture and turned to walk away when the "dead man" called out to him.

"Hey you, come here mister. I gotta give you something." He reached slowly into his pants pocket, pulling out a small wallet. His movements were careful and deliberate, as if to save whatever life he had left in him. He flipped it open to show a picture of him and another bear, very similar in appearance in military uniforms. "My name is Rad, and this is my brother Chad. We both served in the military, and were able to defend ourselves quite well when we were attacked. But then we stumbled upon that stupid girl. She was freaking out, lost her sister or something, and I started getting stressed out. She was hurt, and the sight of her practically dying just caused me to, snap. The war, it wasn't over, at least for me it wasn't. I want to give you this, and please if you find them, my brother or those troublesome girls, keep them safe. And give my machete to Chad, he'd want it back." And then he collapsed, blood pouring from his mouth.

Disco took the two items from the bear, in his mind determined to find this man's brother, and whatever girls he had been talking about. Stepping out of the supply store, he realized there was a glass door with a heavy lock placed over it nearby the home supply store. He opened the wallet and found a small silver key shining in it, next to the picture Rad had showed him. He flicked the key into the latch and with a clank, the heavy tumblers unlocked and the door swung open. Sitting motionless in the white storage room where two other bears, one clad in military fatigues, the other a girl in black shinobi robes. When he approached, the male bear stood and approached him.

"My brother, what happened to him?" his tone was melancholy.

"He attacked me, and I had no choice, I'm sorry."

"It's fine, war has casualties, and I'm sure he understood that. You killing him was probably for the best, he was set on adding us to the numerous body count he had racked up before you had arrived."

"He also wanted you to have this," And Disco handed him the blood stained machete and the small leather wallet.

"Heh, funny, I always carried this after the war just to be safe. I'm sorry he used it to attack you."

"It's fine, now let's go, your brother also wanted me to keep you both safe, and I know of a safe room." He began to lead the way, but realized the girl wasn't moving. "Is she alright?" The girl sat staring at a wall, he knees pulled closed to her body and her arms wrapped around her legs.

"Her name's Light Shadow," Chad said "Her and her sister had quite a rivalry with us, but we put that aside when we found her. We still don't know where her sister is." Chad then walked over, and without a word took the girl's hand and walked behind Disco to safety.

------------------------------------------

Alrighty! I AM TIRED! WHOO! Now for some thanks and some apologies. I'd like to thank Bloodshed Gal for letting me use her OCs Chad, Rad, Light Shadow, and later on Dark Shadow in this chapter. I'd also like to beg for her forgiveness for not asking before I made some slight changes to her characters. You see, the twin girls, not the twin boys are the ones with PTSD. It just seemed strange to have a girl play the part of a muscular Vietnam Veteran, sorry if that's sexist. And just a side note, this fight with Cliff(The character Rad plays) is another part of what inspired me to write this story. A Vietnam Veteran, who "_flips_"out and thinks he's back in the war, attacking anyone nearby. Kinda reminds you of someone, eh?

Oh, and one last thing before you go, I'd just like to reiterate my earlier statement and say that every character submitted so far will be used in the story in some way.

This has been Phoenix Reece, stay classy San Diego!


	11. Above The Law

**Author's Note**

Okay, guys, seriously. I know you like the story and all, but would you kindly write out your OCs descriptions a little more thoroughly? I mean, I can't just go by their names and a sentence or two. Which is why because I couldn't find anywhere else to put Lala and I want to get this chapter out soon, she's gonna be a periwinkle chipmunk (Which I have now fixed, but I'll keep this warning up because it makes me laugh). So there (and be thoroughly warned Mario112, if you don't give me some more info on your characters I'm taking some creative freedom with them), and Kitkatbar, please review or PM me with what she actually was and I'll change it. Oh, and some, _stuff_ may be implied in this chapter, so I'm sorry to any of these character's owners.

**Disco Rising**

Chad was eerily emotionless as he fought his way through the hordes of zombies with Disco, keeping Light close by. He wielded his brother's machete with unfeeling malice, tearing away at the undead to repress some fury or regret over his brother's death. Disco became worried, and finally had to ask.

"Hey, are you gonna be alright Chad? I know you're dealing with a lot now, but you've gotta cheer up, after all, you two are gonna survive this."

"It's hard Disco, I've got a lot of weight on my shoulders. I mean, I've never seen Light like this." He pointed to the bear beside him, a shell of a girl she once was now that she was apart from her sister, she couldn't help but worry about her. What if Dark Shadow was dead, or worse one of_ them_, and she wasn't there to help? It pained her, and so she just didn't feel the need to talk.

They had made it back to the safety room all in one piece, physically if not mentally, and Disco was greeted by Flaky, nervously waiting beside Flippy.

"His fever's gone down, who are those two?" She said, giving a questioning glance.

"Friends, now what about Frost, is he going to make it?" Disco said, the other two bears leading themselves to the back room.

"He's fine too, he just needed some bandages, but I'm not sure if he'll be able to walk again." Flaky said with a worried expression, but quickly changed the subject, "But I'm not a doctor. Anyway, Mole wanted to see you, something about more survivors."

"Great, how many does that make?"

"12, if you count Dr. Barnaby." Mole said from behind, "What? It's my job to keep a census around here."

"Whatever gramps, just tell me where the survivors are." Disco said, impatient with all this running around. The mole was just about to speak when a groan came from the boiler room, jolting Flaky. When she realized what it was, she sprang up and pulled the door open to find Dr. Barnaby just sitting up. His face was dazed from the sedatives Russell had drugged him with, but he had already caught his bearings.

"Why, why did you summon me here?" He turned to face Flaky, his eyes wide with terror.

"We're not here to hurt you, If you can just tell us about Santa Cabeza, then we can get you out of here safely." Flaky said, reaching out to the frightened old man.

"Santa Cabeza? I thought Santa Cabeza was over and done with! We promised never to-" A bulb flash cut off the professor mid sentence, and Flaky turned to find Disco snapping another picture.

"What?" He asked as Flaky shot him an annoyed look and slammed the boiler room door shut. "Fine, I'll just find my own scoops! Hey Mole, where did you say those survivors were?"

"Well, some police officer was dragging a little girl into a clothing store in the Wonderland Plaza, and some guy's gone and holed himself up in a food store in the Paradise Plaza. Looks like all he cared about was eating!" He said, pointing to a couple of recorded monitor images

"What kind of Idiot would be so concerned with food at a time like this?" Disco mumbled under his breath as he went off to find the survivors.

……..

"But you said there'd be a safe house with food! Where is the food? It's too dangerous out here!" The koala groaned.

"For the love of god Chunky, I told you, we need find these girls, one of them is a police officer, she could really help us out!" Disco said, obviously annoyed "Besides, I gave you a gun to protect yourself! Alright, here we are, let me handle the talking." Disco walked slowly into the clothing store, but ducked down when he saw what was going on and motioned for Chunky to do the same.

A Pink Poodle, clad in a very revealing police officer's uniform, stood twirling a baton as she marched around the girl, who had been tied to the chair. She was, "Voluptuous", to put it politely, and the girl tied to the chair couldn't be more than twelve. She had a red muumuu, which had been torn up to her thighs, and she was panting heavily and covered in bruises. Around here were several other girls, a tall green squirrel was cuffed at her ankles and her hand was cuffed to a clothing rack, a blonde cat, in her late teens, struggled to break free off her cuffs, but both her hands were separately cuffed to a changing booth. A hot-pink squirrel was tied at both her hands and feet, with her mouth gagged. All the girls had their clothing torn in demeaning or embarrassing ways, and some were stripped down to their underwear, and they all seemed exhausted and beaten. The "Officer" chuckled as she eyed the young raccoon girl.

"Well, are you going to tell me about those scum convicts you hang around with yet, or are we going to get physical again?"

The girl was on the verge of crying "Please, Princess, I told you. I don't know where Shifty and Lifty are, I lost them in the commotion!"

"Lying to an officer, Caramel? Shame shame shame!" Princess said, and sat sideways on the girls lap. She slowly lifted one of her legs over Caramel's head until it was on her other side, and Princess was facing her completely while sitting on her lap. She smiled evilly and pulled a taser from her belt.  
"Wait, Caramel? That's the girl those cons wanted me to save, I gotta help her!" Disco thought

"You know the punishment for that, naughty little girl." Caramel began struggling as Princess ignited the taser and began bringing it lower and lower until Disco could not bear to stand around and watch any longer.

"HEY! Isn't she a little young for you?" He stood from behind the clothing stand he was behind and brandished he weapon: Cuddles' baseball bat.

"What do you think you're doing punk? I am an officer of the law!" She kicked over the chair, along with Caramel, and lunged at Disco with the taser. Before he could counter, 3,000 volts of electricity passed through his body, paralyzing him and knocking him to the ground.

"Maybe you'll respect the law after THIS!" She said, with a laugh, and placed her high-heeled boots on Disco's pants, and began grinding her heel into his groin. Almost simultaneously, every girl in the room gave an audible cringe at the sight of Disco's "torture".

"Now, I'll teach you a lesson you won't soon forget!" She pulled a pistol out of her holster, and took aim at Disco's head. When a shot rang out, Princess was terrified to realize it wasn't hers. Chunky stood in front of her, shaking with a smoking pistol in his hands. She felt a sharp pain, and looked down to find someone had shot her dead center in the chest, and promptly she collapsed from the pain of the wound. Even as Disco Bear began untying her hostages she continued to moan in agony.

"OOOOOh, ooh, no, I'm gonna die, someone help! It hurts, It hurts, It AUGH!" She was finally silenced when Chunky, still twitching from having shot a girl, planted the baseball bat squarely in her skull.

The moment Caramel was untied, she ran up and wrapped her arms around Chunky's large belly.

"My hero!"

Disco unlocked the cuffs of the squirrel, and she almost immediately undid her fanny pack and pulled out a thermos, drinking heavily from it.

"Hi, I'm Cappuchino! But you can call me Chino! Double latte?" She held out her thermos invitingly.

"No thanks," Disco said, and undid the cuffs of the Blonde cat, and she let out a single huff, stuffing her hands in her pockets and claiming,

"I was just about to break out anyway."

"You're welcome, now all that's left is you." Disco approached the squirrel, who was tied up on all fours, gagged. Disco first removed the gag, but all she let out was a moan, and turned with her rear facing Disco.

"Oooh, you have to help! She put her baton _inside me_ and now it's stuck, help me pull it out!" Disco recoiled and blushed at the thought, but soon the girl broke down laughing. Disco blushed and untied her.

"HA! You should have seen your face, I almost thought you were gonna reach up there! What a sap! Name's Lala." She stopped laughing for a moment to hold out her hand.

"No thanks chuckles. Now, I can get you all to safety if you just follow me. I know a shortcut to the security room on the first floor. Let's go!" He announced, and the four girls and one boy followed him down the stairs, surprisingly being able to fend off most of the zombies.

They were about halfway through the wonderland plaza when a nasaly, high pitched laugh tore through the mall. The group stopped in it's tracks as a figure leaped from the second floor and landed in front of them. He had a Molotov cocktail in each hand and laughed wildly before turning his head to the group and whispering

"Heeeeeere's TYLER!"

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Man, its' just boss fight after boss fight with poor Disco. And I have to apologize, my pervier side took over during that whole "Princess" scene. Please don't judge me.

Oh, and I'd like to thank LoveGame for her OC Grace, Kitten630 for Chino, Princess, and Caramel, and kitkatbar for Lala. Oh, and Tyler, don't worry, he will live, though the next chapter is gonna be really painful for him.


	12. Long Haired Punk and A Strange Group

**Author's Note**

Hey, remember this story? I updated it! Now it's been tough updating my stories, and It's gonna get tougher soon (Stupid Drama Company, why do I have to love musicals so much?), but I just hope all my fans will bear with me as I grind into the wee hours of the night to keep pumping out stories that people (Surprisingly) wanna read. Oh, and as some of you may have read, I am unfortunately no longer accepting OCs, but all characters submitted before this chapter was release will still be featured. I apologize, but there's simply no more room for characters in the story. As for those who have had their characters featured in the story, once the final chapter is dropped, watch your mailbox, because I'm sending each and every one of you an "Official Zombie Genocider" Medal and a Mega Buster!

**Disco Rising**

There he stood, a cat clad in an all black outfit, clenched in either hand was a lit Molotov cocktail, his coat was bulging with bottles of alcohol, and his long black hair covered his eyes, but his eyes seemed like those of a hunter.

"HAHAHAHA! You're out of luck losers, because you just ran into the scourge of Happy Tree Mall, the murderous Tyler the vicious!"

The group stared dumbfounded at the freak with the firebombs, though none of them, the young Caramel included, seemed scared of their attacker. Lala, who had been staring at him, suddenly realized who he was. "Oh my god! No way, any of you go to high school here?" Chino and Grace raised their hands

"He's that loser who asked out Princess and got slapped!" She laughed.

Grace, figuring out what was going on, started laughing herself "You mean the one I pegged in the groin in dodge ball, TWICE?" The girl's laughter seemed to infuriate Tyler, and finally he snapped, lobbing a flaming Molotov at the two, but Disco was able to push the two out of the way as his body was consumed in a wall of fire.

"Oh my god! Disco!" Chino, desperate to save their savior, smashed the glass case on a nearby wall and grabbed the extinguisher, spraying him clean. Disco stood up, and he seemed fine, aside from his slightly scorched afro and singed suit, but he knew what he had to do.

Tyler, meanwhile had already lit another Molotov and tossed it at the group once more screaming "Take a flame bath, bitches!" Disco was ready this time, and pulled the bat from his coat, smashing the Molotov mid toss splashing flames around the floor.

"Listen buddy, I've gotten tasered, burned, and crotch stomped today, so I'm gonna give you to the count of-" But he was pushed out of the way, Grace stood defiantly and cracked her knuckles

"Leave it to me pal, you've done enough for today, this time I'll save you!" She leapt through the flames the Molotov had spread across the floor. And, in mid flight, she delivered a vicious hook to Tyler's jaw, knocking him flat. She picked him up by the collar and shook him while she spoke

"Listen pal, I don't know what you think you're doing, but I'm gonna stomp you flat for it!"

Tyler, nervous, fumbled around in his pockets and pulled a match and a small canister out, lighting it and holding it up to her, laughing wildly

"Here's a little present, ya dumb dyke!" And he shoved her back and tossed the pipe bomb and her feet, the blast sending her flying. Tyler chuckled while lighting a Molotov to toss on the stunned girl, but Caramel realized what was going on and tackled him. With an incredible amount of force, the young girl sent the teenage boy stumbling back where Lala had been waiting with her foot out to trip him. Tyler fell on his back, and in his fall threw the lit Molotov into the air. Lying on his back, Tyler realized what was going on and scuttled back, but wasn't fast enough and the flaming explosive landed on his lap, setting his groin ablaze.

The group watched in horror as the cat desperately attempted to pat out the flames on his crotch in vain. The alcohol had soaked his pants though, and he would not be able to get it out without help. Finally the girls became panicked.

"We've gotta help him!" Caramel said

Gracie gave a huff "Why should we? He attacked us."

Meanwhile, Lala simply rolled around laughing, and Chino looked at her angrily while trying to get the fire extinguisher to work, but it seemed to empty. In desperation, she popped the lid off her coffee, but hesitated to dump it on Tyler, when she could drink it instead. Finally, she dumped the scalding hot liquid on his pants, and Tyler let out a squeal of pain, before collapsing in agony. Disco, showing a very slight bit of compassion for the poor idiot, kicked Tyler's head lightly to wake him up, and offered him his hand.

"Hey, freak, you done attacking us?" He asked

Tyler pulled himself up with Disco's help "Yes, thanks. I'm sorry."

Grace was still agitated with him, and was mere seconds away from punching him again when she asked "Why the hell would you do that, You crazy or something?"

" I, I always got picked on in school, and I figured because the zombies were all over so no one would stop me if I took my revenge."

"Buddy, we're out for our survival, so put those petty things aside, and we're your closest family right now. And, I think you owe your 'Sisters' an apology."

Tyler approached the girls and nervously apologized, still wary of Grace's wrath. But the girls accepted his apology, and the group moved on, with one new member in tow. As they went along, Tyler stopped Chino, and spoke to her privately.

"Um, I just wanted to thank you. I mean, you're the only one who didn't attack me, and you saved me. It was painful, but you saved me."

Chino giggled and gave him a hug "Aw, don't worry about it. You can pay me back by getting me another double latte on our way to the safe house." She walked away to catch up with the rest of the group, and Tyler followed, blushing.

………

Disco kicked open the doors to the paradise plaza, as he usually did on his way to the security room. But he wasn't prepared for what he saw this time. Zombies were a norm by now, but this time there was not a single undead in the room, and instead stood a group of raincoat wearing cultists, chanting and as they lowered a bear girl, bound and gagged into a crate. Standing before them all was another bear, clad in white, priest-like robes. He stood, commanding them.

"Yes, my disciples. This heretic will make a suitable sacrifice to the lord! We shall ascend and rise above this plague! Offer pure blood to cure the tainted!" The raincoat cultists chanted his last words and lifted the crate over their heads, walking into the movie theater behind the priest. He spotted Disco's ragged band and pointed a finger at them, ushering a new command.

"Heretics, kill them all! They'll ruin the sacrifice!" The cultists pulled knives from their coats and slowly approached them, chanting.

"Kill them, father Meth demands it!" Disco heard over the chanting. He cursed his own bad luck, and realized what he had to do.

"Chunky, I need to save that girl before they sacrifice her!"

"We can handle this Disco, go on without us!" Chunky was oddly mature, the entire experience making him more serious. He pulled the pistol from his belt and fired into the cultist mob. Lala, who had taken Princess's pistol, did the same. Grace, who had stolen Princess's taser, and Caramel, who had taken a frying pan from the food court, as well as a backpack full of food, charged in with Disco to clear a path. When he made it to the other side, the cultists attempted to follow him, but were severed from the movie theater by a wall of flame.

They turned to find Tyler ginning wildly clutching his Molotovs, "Sorry boyos, you going nowhere!"

…..

Disco, having taken care of the few guards inside the theater with his bat, easily found the room where the sacrifice was being held, as a blaring guitar was being played. He entered to find the priest, Meth, as his name could be assumed, standing on an altar where a mannequin, pierced with an enormous ceremonial sword, had been coated in blood red paint with symbols and runes. In front of him was a dog, around 15 in age, and next to him was the bear girl, seemingly older, in her twenties. The girl was unconscious, and the boy struggled wildly to escape. Meth held a similar sword to the one on the shrine, leaning on it with both hands singing along to song blaring over the speakers in the room.

"Time for lust, Time for Lie, time to kiss your life goodbye" He whipped the enormous sword in the air as if performing some kind of ceremonial dance and continued singing "Send me money, send me green, heaven you shall meet. Make a contribution and you'll get the better seat! BOW TO LEPER MESSIAH!" But on the last words, the music ceased, and The "Priest" turned to find Disco, standing over his equipment having just planted the baseball bat into the speakers.

"Heretic! You dare cease the sacred ceremony! Your blood shall be spilled to avenge the defilement of the lord!"

Meth ran at him, initially dragging the heavy claymore, but lifted it over his shoulder running full speed and swung rapidly at Disco, the bear calmly dodged his blows and lashed out with his baseball bat. But, Diso couldn't mar the flesh of his opponent either, Meth dodged everything thrown at him. They clashed, the steel sword digging deep into the wooden bat. Taking advantage of this opportunity, Disco tossed both weapons to the side, and Meth drew back into a fighting stance, with only his pointer and middle finger extended in loose fists. He lashed out with his two fingers, but Disco dodged, and Meth punched a hole in the wall of the theater. Disco made a mental note to dodge that, and lashed out with a straight forward punch, which Meth easily dodged and threw Disco over his shoulder. Disco, attempting to regain his balance, felt around and realized Meth had thrown him in the direction of his sword, and as his opponent rushed him, Disco slashed at Meth with the oversized blade, slicing his stomach open and causing intestines and blood to spill over the floor.

Meth was horrified by this, but instead of collapsing of using his last seconds to try and scoop up his bloody entrails, he ran stumbling over to his shrine and fell kneeling in front of it, shaking its foundation and pleading to his god.

"Why have you forsaken me lord? WHY!?!" His violent shaking, though, had upset the mannequin balanced on the shrine and the blade fell down, driving itself into the priest's eye, and with a few short gurgles of pain, he died. Disco shook his head sadly and walked over the to the Dog, cutting him free with the sword, handing it to him.

"Hey, kid, you know how to use this?"

"Do I? Name's B.J, nice to meet ya!" He held out his hand, but Disco was busy untying the bear girl, and lifting her still unconscious body onto his back.

"No time for introductions, we've gotta go. I know a safe place."

And Disco carried the girl out of the theater, B.J. following close behind, balancing the sword on his shoulder.

-------------------------------------

Man, this chapter was longer than I thought it would have been. I just wanted to get two fights down at once, and I succeeded. And let's give a thanks to Methereaper, Tytoon and Hollowxxx for their OCs Meth and Crystal, Tyler, and BJ, respectively. Oh, and to all my loyal readers out there, I'm conducting a little pole to see what I should do next after I've finished my three stories here. Please, I wanna know what you want to read!

Tune in next time, same Phoenix time(or whenever I can update), same Phoenix place.


	13. The Survivors

**Author's Note**

Ah, here we are again, the author's note! The place where I say something hopefully funny and then you, after reading like the first sentence or two(If it's a long one) skip over it and get to the actual story. Well, I'm taking this chapter as a little break, another security room chapter. This is where I'll kind of focus on points I didn't touch on when some OCs appeared, so who knows, maybe your OC will get some time in the spotlight!

**Disco Rising**

The security room, or more rather the monitor room was still silent. Flippy lay on the small sofa, still unconscious and breathing heavily. Mole and Sniffles sat by the vent opening, playing cards. They really didn't have to be guarding it, but it made the two feel like they were helping, at least a little bit. A series of clatters was a familiar sound to the two. It meant that Disco was back, with more survivors.

"OW!"

"Move it!"

"Did someone just touch my butt?"

"Sorry!"

"Watch where you're poking around with that sword!"

Disco fell out first and a white-furred bear girl crawled out after him. He was followed by four more girls, a cat with a black leather jacket and a grim scowl on her face, two squirrels, a tall green one and pink one clad in a jogging suit, and a young raccoon, not possibly over twelve. A nervous looking-cat in a black Goth getup and a dog shouldering a large sword, jumped out next. The dog seemed like he had trouble walking, and the cat helped him along into the break room to find the other survivors. Mole noticed what seemed like a grey blob get stuck in the exit, and soon they made out hands and a head, a large koala struggled to get out.

"Uh, guys, a little help?" He held his hands out and Disco and Caramel grabbed his hands and began tugging.

"God Chunky, how did you fit in here anyway?" Disco asked between grunts

"Shut up! It's not because I'm fat! You're the ones who made me and Caramel lug those backpacks full of food!" And they continued in vain to pull him out, until finally Grace stepped up and spit in her hands.

"Listen up fatty, you're the one who HRAGH!" And she single handedly pulled Chunky out and they tumbled into a wall, Chunky lying on her lap. "You're the one who said we'd need more food!" She flicked his glasses and he nervously got off of her, fearing any further retribution.

The survivors all made their way back to the security room, and Disco, now alone with the two mall officials, fell exhausted into one of the folding chairs they had set out.

"Tired, Disco?" Mole asked while shuffling the deck of cards again "Care for a quick game to unwind?"

Disco let out a deep sigh, "Sure, why not? I'm gonna work myself to death here anyway." And Mole tossed a few cards in front of the bear, who began to explain his eventful day in full.

Meanwhile, the other survivors had begun to integrate themselves into the other groups that had formed in the break room, The bear Girl, Crystal, as her name would be, found herself an empty room and silently made her way into it. Meanwhile, Chunky seated himself on a sofa, and pulled out a small electronic device. B.J, tossing the blood-soaked sword aside, sat down next to him.

"uh, hey! What'cha got there?" He asked nervously, his hands twitching.

" 358/2 days." Chunky said, without looking up from the screen. BJ nearly fell off his seat when he heard this,

"Where'd you get that? It, hasn't even come out yet!"

"I grabbed it from the storeroom of the Electro Pwn, I figured no one would mind."

"You, you gotta let me play! I haven't had a fix in like, two days, help a brother out!" But, when Chunky didn't respond, BJ grabbed at the handheld game and the two ended up tumbling off the couch and rolling about on the floor. Cuddles, who had been napping for most of the day, angrily stepped out to break up the fight, while the rest of the survivors made their way into their separate storage rooms that served as dorm rooms. Tyler limped into a room, his crotch still stung with flames and hot coffee.

Frost, who was sitting on the floor propped up with pillows, noticed he was walking funny and had to ask "Jeez, what happened to you?"

Tyler eased himself down slowly, as not to agitate his burns, "What happened to me? What happened to you, Mum-ra?" He pointed to the other cat's bandaged abdomen.

"Oh this? Long story, but I guess we all have some free time, so If you really wanna hear. I was in wonderland plaza with my girl here…."

While Frost continued his story, Grace took a seat with Chad and Light Shadow in another room, the two sat oddly silent even with their new visitor.

Grace was normally never the one to start a conversation, but she felt awkward just sitting there staring at a wall, and spoke up to the girl next to her "Uh hey, what's your name? I'm Grace."

The girl didn't respond, but the man on the other side of the room did, "Her name's Light, but she's not much for talking right now."

A person would normally take that as a cue to back off, but Grace hated silence, and tried again, "Are you okay, something wrong?"

The girl finally lifted her head off of her knees and turned to Grace "I-I miss my sister."

At first, Grace was confused "Your siste-" she began, but then the reality of the situation hit her. "Oh God, is she dead? Wait, don't answer that, that was rude!" The tough cat was actually fumbling with her words, making her seem more friendly, and natural, than usual.

Light, still staring at the ground, finally responded, "I don't know, we got separated, but she has to be dead. There's no way she'd make it out alive" And she put her head back into her knees and started to sob. Grace, still nervous, pulled Light's head up herself and put on her tough girl face again.

"Hey, shut up! You know that's not true, I mean look at you! You're a ninja, and I bet your sister is too!" Light nodded, and sniffed away her tears.

"Exactly, she could last a year around here on her own, but she won't have to! Not with Disco out there, risking his ass to save people. Do you know what happened when he came to rescue us? He got tasered, beat up, nearly shot, and then set on fire and still brushed himself off to lead us to safety. So quit crying! Besides, you look like a normally happy girl, aren't ya?"

Light actually smiled, and wrapped her arms around Grace in a warm hug "You're right!" Her voice was cheery, a surprising change from not talking at all. "She's alive right now, and Disco's gonna save her, and we're all gonna get out of here, aren't we? Thanks, Grace, I needed that!"

Grace blushed and tried to struggle her way out of Light's kung-fu grip of a hug, but she was strong for such a tiny looking girl. Chad, who had been sitting alone polishing the blood off of his machete, finally broke down laughing. "Sheesh, this is the first time I've seen Light smile in days, let alone hug anyone!"

Chad's laughter had penetrated all the way to the AC room, where Disco sat playing cards with Sniffles and Mole, and he was almost surprised when he knew exactly who that was. "Hmm, Chad, laughing. That could only mean one thing."

Sniffles asked "That one army guy? What would make him laugh?"

"He'd only be laughing if Light had cheered up, so that makes two things to be happy about." Disco was actually happy about the two, "It's crazy, how much you begin to care about random people, when you know you're saving their lives."

Mole looked surprised, not at Disco's comment, but at something behind him. "Hey Disco, I think a couple of random people need you."

He turned from the card table to find Giggles, tears welling up in her eyes, holding Caramel's hand. "Disco, she needs to ask you something." Giggles said, almost sobbing.

Caramel just stood there, until Giggles shook the hand she was holding and motioned for her to walk over to the table where Disco was sitting. She moved slowly, as if unsure of what she was walking into.

"Mr. Disco, do you know what happened to Lifty and Shifty? I had asked her but she started getting upset, and brought me to you. Are they okay, please tell me they are!" the young raccoon stared at him with eyes that would make a stone wall cringe with guilt. Disco stood firm though, and kneeling down, placed a hand on her shoulder. He was stony-faced, like a father would be.

"Caramel, how do you know those two?"

"I'm adopted, or I was adopted. Into Princess's family, and she was always so mean to me, but it was still a home. And before I lived there, Lifty and Shifty lived at the orphanage I did. They were like my big brothers, but they always got in trouble so I tried to make them behave better. When I got adopted they didn't want to leave me, so they started visiting my new house, but my new mom and dad didn't like them, so they called the cops and made sure Lifty and Shifty couldn't come back. We decided to keep in touch secretly, and they promised if they ever got out of prison we'd meet and have a picnic in the park at this mall. When the zombies, I was at school, so I tried to escape to the mall, because maybe Lifty and Shift got out of jail and because Princess works as a mall officer, but when I got there she arrested me and, oh. She did horrible things. Horrible, horrible things."

Disco shook his head and looked at the girl sullenly "I'm sorry Caramel, they're dead, both of them. They were in the park like they promised, but the zombies had gotten them. I tried to save them but it was too late. But Shifty was still alive, and he made me promise that I'd find you and protect you before he died."

Caramel looked like she was going to cry, but her gaze didn't leave Disco's, "Mr. Disco, they were bad people, Lifty and Shifty. But do you think when they died they went to heaven, because they weren't all bad?"

"Yes, I think they were good in the end, and they loved you very much." He said, and Caramel walked away, a satisfied smile on her face, but Giggles refused to leave the AC room.

"Do you think it was wrong, Giggles." Disco said, standing up.

"To lie to her? No, but it was wrong to lie to me, Shifty really did say that before he died, didn't he?" Disco nodded.

"I just wish you had told me sooner, I had hated them so much, but even if they killed someone I loved that doesn't mean I can hate them after death. Especially if they had cared so much for a sweet an innocent young girl."

Disco stood, still strangely serious and said "I didn't tell you because of this. Worry about survival, not conflicting emotions, I can pay for a shrink if you really need it once we're out of here."

Giggles gave a frustrated huff, but they both lost their composure when Chino burst from the monitor room.

"Quick Disco, you've gotta come see what me and Lala just found!" Disco, along with Sniffles, Giggles, and Mole piled into the monitor room where Lala sat at the nearby desk. She motioned the group towards her and pointed to a nearby monitor screen.

"Take a look at this." She turned a switch and a recording flashed by. A skunk girl was riding a motorcycle in the northern plaza. She drove slowly towards the entrance to the supermarket, and headed inside. "Now, look closely. I can zoom this in here and voila!" she turned a knob and the screen focused in on the girl's face. She was the exact same skunk Disco had encountered earlier.

"I-I know that girl! I need to find her, where is this, when is this?" Disco said, panicked.

Lala sighed and responded "This is the food store in the northern plaza, and this only happened a minute ago, if you move fast you might be able to-" But Disco had already squeezed himself into the air duct and was out of earshot.

Lala giggled and asked the group "Alright, let's start a betting pool, relative or lover? Any takers?"

------------------------------------------

So, there ya have it, a break in the action. This ended up being a lot longer than I thought it would be, but I think it worked out well. And to all my loyal readers out there, check out my latest poll to decide what story I'll do next! Anyhoo, read and review. If you need me I'll be erecting a dispenser because that stupid heavy ran out of ammo again.

Engineer, I mean

Phoenix Reece, signing out!


	14. The Mysterious Girl

**Author's Note**

Well, I've hit rock bottom somehow. Sure, I was on top of the world in the beginning, the hits were pouring in 70 a day, but lately I'd be lucky to hit ten a day. But I'm hoping this new chapter will renew my fame with my audience, and soon I'll be as legendary as I once pretended I was.

*sad violin music*

So please read and review this and my other stories, Uncanny HTF Showdown and Family Reunion (Which I'll have a new chapter of… soon, I guess?) and vote in my poll,

PUH-LEEEEEEZE?!?!?!!

**Disco Rising**

"Where is she? She's behind this isn't she? Santa Cabeza, what the hell is that? All this for news? Damn it, I need a new job……."

Disco sprinted faster than he ever had in his life, desperate to find this girl who had eluded her and held the truth from him. "The truth, that's what I've been searching for," He whispered to himself, halfway into the northern plaza.

"Everyone deserves the truth." That's what he was taught for years as a photojournalist, it wasn't just about fame. Given, Disco had gotten into the business for fame, but he had always wanted to scream the truth about the world, let everyone know what was hidden right underneath their noses. And this was his greatest opportunity, the chance of a lifetime, and he sure as hell wouldn't let some skunk, regardless of how attractive she was, ruin this chance. Finally he reached the grocery store, but unfortunately the motorcycle she had boarded was nowhere in sight, but the sound of it was. A deep rumbling could be heard echoing through the plywood and scaffolding laden halls of the mall, and suddenly the bright lights of the cycle blinded Disco momentarily, and he was thrown over the windshield of the motorcycle, and spiraled into the sky before crashing violently back to earth.

"Who the fu-" He stood grabbing his aching head and saw the skunk pull a 180 degree turn, and face him. She wore a crimson helmet that covered her features, save for an odd pink flower that she wore on the outside of it. She reached up to adjust her flower, and squinted at Disco through the visor of her helmet. Another rev of the engine meant to say that the last hit was not an accident and she plowed forward at the bear.

This time Disco was prepared though, and rolled to one side to narrowly avoid the attack. Landing on one knee, he fished through his pockets for the pistol, but found nothing.

"Damn it, it must have been knocked out of my coat when," His eyes darted about, and found the pistol lying only twenty feet away, but almost as soon as he found it, the mysterious girl pulled in front of the gun and revved the engine of the bike once more, and sent it thundering forward at him again. Disco just managed to dodge the charge once more, but realized he had no hope of getting to the pistol now.

"Shit, I don't have anything I can use to stop her without getting my guts splattered across the tiles. Unless," He felt the metal pipe behind him, another scaffold that led to a series of catwalks above them. The bike charged again and he monkeyed up the pipe onto the catwalk. He grabbed a nearby toolbox, and dumped its contents onto the thin wooden floor. "Saw blades? That might work!" Disco chuckled as he aimed it like a discus at the rapidly moving motorcycle.

"I must warn you, I was the Frisbee champion of 1972!" He shouted with his usual cocky tone, but realizing that his foe probably couldn't hear any of his witty banter over the bike's roaring engine, he took aim once again. Disco threw the saws with razor edged accuracy, but almost all of them missed, save for one that only harmlessly bounced off the mirror of the bike, managing only to shatter the glass. This got the girl's attention though, and she skidded to a stop, removing a handgun strapped to her leg. She fired a few rounds, forcing Disco to duck behind a pile of wood. He banged his knee against a metal tool box, cursing to himself, but found a small black gun inside.

"A nailgun? Perfect!" He popped up from behind the barricade, much like those war heroes he covered years back, and took aim at the girl. When she saw Disco was armed, the skunk tried to turn and escape, but Disco managed to pop one of her rear tires, and send the girl tumbling out of control. She finally slid to a stop, the motorcycle next to her in a wreck, and she lay motionless, the helmet thrown off during the crash. Disco, shocked, leapt from the scaffold, and ran over to her motionless body.

"Oh shit, oh shit! I just killed her, no! Why does this always happen to me?" He hunched over her body, and she slowly opened her eyes. But, the girl suddenly realized what was going on, and tried to crawl backwards, screaming and flailing her legs about. Disco cautiously followed her, attempting to calm her down, but a hard kick found its mark in his groin, and he fell to the ground with the wind knocked clean out of him

"GAH! CALM DOWN YOU PSYCHO BITCH!" He shouted, but realizing he was frightening her, changed his tone quickly. "Listen, I'm not here to hurt you, I'm a reporter, and I just want to know about Santa Cabeza."

Her eyes took on an infuriated look, she clutched her hands in fists and glared at him "You don't need to know anything about my pain! It's none of your business!"

Disco reached out to her invitingly "Please, I understand something terrible has happened. And I want to know the truth behind all of this, so the world can know. Know what happened here and in Santa Cabeza."

She seemed timid, but finally took his hand as he helped her up. She still seemed angry though, and glared at him as she spoke "The zombies were created by you, not us. That's what Russell wants you to know. Why don't you just ask him?"

"Russell? The dude who took potshots at us with a sniper rifle? Well, if he's got the answers, take me to him!"

"NO!" She shouted, but calmed herself "I can't. Not right now, he's injured, and he won't listen to you. But I can persuade him to be more reasonable, after all, I am his-"

"Girlfriend?" Disco seemed shocked.

The girl shook her head. "Little sister, but either way I'll bring him to you when he's recovered."

"When? And how can I trust you to bring him?"

"Because, he only wants to be heard, nothing else. He never wanted to kill anyone, he just thought it was the only way people would listen." She stood. "Meet me here at midnight, I promise to bring Russell."

She began to walk away, but turned to say one last thing "By the way, my name is Petunia." And left without another word, but not before Disco could snap another photo of her backside for "profiling"

A familiar ring snapped him out of his deep focus, and heard Mole's voice sounding over the transmitter "Hello, Disco? It's me, Lala and Chino spotted someone in the women's boutique over in the wonderland plaza, say she's clad in a black ninja geddup and looks pretty scared. I swear, those two won't leave the monitor room for a second, like they're wrapped up in some kinda murder mystery."

Disco chuckled, Mole's rambling making him seem like some absent minded grandpa "Thanks old man, I'll make sure to check it out."

……

The strange bear that stepped into view in the wonderland plaza seemed like the perfect target; dumb looking, bright clothing, and best of all he had no Idea he was being watched from the scope of a high-caliber sniper rifle.

"Hey dad, ya see 'em? About 75 yards." The cat behind the barrel chuckled.

The father, a deer, pulled an arrow from his back and drew back his string. "See 'em, I could pop him right between the eyes, but that'd be no great stakes, think you can pull it off son?"

The second brother, a raccoon pulled his eye from the barrel "But, pa, he's no zombie! He's just an ordinary bear."

"Shut up, Beat! You know we're doing this for our own good, it's our God-given right as Americans to defend ourselves with firearms!" the cat growled at him.

"Your brother Cat is right, take the shot!" The father said, and the two began chanting in unison

"Take the shot! Take the Shot! Take the SHOT!"

Beat, sweating bullets, put his eye to the scope and rested his finger on the trigger. Taking in a deep breath, he cringed and prepared to fire

-----------------------------.

OOOOOH! Sniper cliffhanger! The best kind! Anyhow, hope you enjoyed this chapter as much as the others and will happily review. Oh, and just one other thing, sorry about the repeated groin shots. I know it's a little low-brow, but I swear to god all of those (Including Tyler's crotch catching fire) happened in the game!

Chunky: AHEM!  
Me: Oh, and none of the parings in this are official in my book, Chunky's still with Petunia.

Petunia: You're cute when you're grumpy! *smooches Chunky's cheek*

Chunky: *Glasses fog up*

Me: oh, and I'd like to thank Mario112 for Indie(sorry I couldn't use the others!), Felix Rodriguez for the Cat, and Meowth's Toon Dragon for Beat!

This has been Phoenix Reece, now, TO THE PHOENIX CAVE!


	15. The Sniper Family

Author's Note Well, after a short Hiatus, I HAVE RETURNED! But, keep it quiet will ya? I'm a fugitive you know. My laptop is currently in custody so I'm writing these on the schools computor. I got a great bypass program that lets me go on fanfiction from here and I'm gonna keep updating afterschool before my musical rehearsals start. …..

Yeah, I do musicals! WHAT OF IT? YOU GOT A PROBLEM WIT DAT? ….

Sorry, I'm a sensitive guy, y'know. Anyhow, please sit back, relax and enjoy Disco Rising

----------------------------------------------------------

Beat was gasping for breath, the sniper rifle shaking in his loose grip as he held it to his eye.

"Shoot the damn bear Beat! DO IT!" His father bellowed and in shock he clicked the trigger.

A resounding blast echoed through the mall, the but the bullet missed it's mark completely, planting itself into the wall a few feet above Disco's head.

The startled bear ducked behind a nearby support column, hiding himself from view, but before he could, an arrow sunk deep into his left shoulder

"Damnit Beat, he knows where we are! Beat, he knows where we are! You stupid fuck-up, can't you do anything right?" Indi screamed at his son. "P-pa, I'm sorry. I'm no sniper!" "You sure as hell are not! Now all of our lives are in danger!"He pulled another arrow to the bowstring and took aim. "Cat, take him down when he shows his head." The white suited cat licked his lips and held his eye to the scope. "Like shootin' fish in a barrel dad, fish in a barrel."

Meanwhile Disco, with a huff of strength, yanked the arrow from his arm and wrapped a strip of his coat around it.

"What the hell is going on here? A sniper rifle, a bow and arrow? I swear to God if someone throws a jar of piss at me I'm gonna go apeshit." Disco kept swearing to himself, but had a plan to take down the snipers, even though they had range on him.

He pulled his camera up from around his neck and clutched the small handgun in the other hand. Taking one last deep breath, he leapt from his cover and snapped a photo, releasing a blinding flash. Cat, who was eyeing him through a magified scope, recoiled in shock and clutched his eyes, momentarily blinded. But before either his father or brother could respond, a hail of bullets tore into Cat, one skillfully aimed shot landing directly between his eyes.

"Cat! NO! Beat, look what you've done! Your brother's dead, and it's your fault!" Indi was steaming, and swung the arrow around at his son. "Pa, I'm sorry, I-I DON'T WANNA DIE!" Beat threw his rifle to the ground and ran off crying, leaving the deer by himself. "Sickening coward. I don't even know why I brought him into my home." He pulled the arrow back up to the bowstring and slowly walked in the direction of the bear's last known location. A shadow darted by and in a shock, he fired in arrow in it's direction, but the wooden shaft sounded an echo to let him know it had only bounced off the ground a ways off. "Come out wherever you are, coward! I know you're out there!" Indi steadied another arrow, but it shook in his hand at he pivoted back and forth, determined to to let the enemy gain the upper hand. But just as his nerves hit their limit, an agonizing pain shot through his spine, killing him instantly. Disco, who had been carefully avoiding him, had planted a hunting knife in his back. "Shoulda worn a razor back, pal."

He chuckled, and called out to darkness "Hey, I know you're out there, the picture shows three snipers. Come out peacefully and I won't backstab you." And almost instantly, a green raccoon, bearing some resemblance to the convicts, stepped out. He was trembling, with his hands above his head and spoke in a quavering voice. "M-mister, Puh-puh-please don't kill me! I didn't wanna shoot at you, my f-, I mean my step-dad made me do it. Him and my stupid step brother! I never wanted to shoot nobody, and I wouldn't hurt that girl even if I got the chance!"

"Right, that girl, where is she kid?" Disco asked, snapping a quick photo of the two dead snipers.

Beat pointed behind him, to a cosmetics store. "She's in there, but we didn't kill her. She managed to sneak up there before we could hit her, and she was wearing all black so it made her hard to spot. By the way, my name's Beat, please don't call me 'kid'"

In the cosmetics store, a young bear sat clutching her knees behind the counter, trying to avoid being shot. Disco managed to sneak up on her, and startled her when he spoke up. "Hey you! I took care of those snipers, you can come out now!" he said invitingly, and she slowly lifted her head above the counter.

"Y-you did?" She spoke slowly, as if she hadn't had anyone else to speak to in a while. "HEY! You're one of them!" She pointed acusingly at Beat.

"I, I'm sorry. I didn't wanna hurt you, honest. Plus, I couldn't shoot you if I tried." He looked down and let out a melancholy sigh. "I'm a terrible shot….."

She glanced around the room and gave a weak smile. "It's alright, no use holding grudges. We need all the friends we can get during these tough times, especially after everything I've lost."

"Y-you lost someone?" Beat said, feeling sorry for her.

"My sister, Light. I'm Dark Shadow by the way, we're twins." Disco, leaning against the wall, gave a cocky grin "Well, I knew you looked familiar. Your sister's been really worried about you."

Dark's face lit up and she grabbed Disco by the shoulders "A-are you serious! You found Light, where is she? WHERE IS SHE!?" "

Calm down honey, she's safe. I can take you to her, the security room in the mall is safe from all the zombies and psychos out here." He started walking away, but glanced over his shoulder.

"Well, c'mon. I meant now! And take those guns, we'll need 'em"

……-----------------------------------------

About ten minutes later, the group was in the paradise plaza, only a few minutes away from safety when Dark's ears perked up.

"Do you hear, crying?"

And surprisingly enough, they did. A young girl could be heard sobbing, and they traced it to a CD store only a few feet from the security room where a little girl, a white and tan cat was kneeling and crying into her lap.

"Why, oh why? It's all over! Just like that!" She moaned. The crying almost sounded fake, and got a funny look from Disco as he approached her.

"Hey, you alright?" He asked.

She looked up from her tear soaked pants and yelled "NO! It's all over, can't you tell!"

"I don't see anything…"

"Are you and idiot, look!" She held out one arm and Disco saw a deep flesh wound, poorly bandaged, on her left arm. "I've been bitten, and now I'm gonna be one of them!" Her head fell back into her knees.

Disco, panicked to relieve the girl's hysteria, put one hand on her shoulder and comforted her "Now, hold on little lady, I know a girl. Her name's Petunia, she might just be able to help you out here. She knows a lot about the infection and I'm meeting her at midnight. Until then, you're welcome to come with us to safety."

In an instant, the girl's head shot up and Disco saw her shining eyes, devoid of tears, hanging about a wide grin. Then, her whole body shot up, knocking Disco on his back

"YES! YA HEAR THAT MOMMA! IVORY'S GONNA LIVE ANOTHER DAY! I'M CURED! HALLEUJAH!" She twirled around the shop, thoroughly disturbing Disco and company. "H-hey, calm down, kid. You're gonna get hurt!" "How can I calm down when I've just been saved by a night in shining armor! I feel so happy I…. I could…."

And just as suddenly as she perked up, the girl fell flat on her face on the thankfully carpeted floor.

"Gah! What's with this chick?" He felt her pulse, and sighed that she was still alive "She, she fainted…"

"Well, what do we do with her?" Beat asked, nervous as ever. "Stupid, we can't just leave her! It's a little girl after all!" Dark smacked him on the back on the head, causing him to drop the sniper rifle and trip over himself trying to pick it up.

Disco sighed and asked himself just why he was saving these people, but reluctantly picked up the girl, Ivory as she had semi-introduced herself as, and carried her in his arms back to the security room.

----------------------------……

Almost immediately after the group exited the air duct, a wave of surprise washed over them.

Disco had glanced into the security room and noticed that Flaky and Dr. Barnaby were outside the boiler room, as well as Flippy, who appeared to have a full recovery.

Dark, had also glanced into the room and saw Light, who was preocupied with the monitor screens with Chino and Lala. She ran full bound (Which was exceedingly fast, she was a ninja after all) and tackled her in a loving family reunion. The two pulled themselves up and exited into the break room, hardly looking away from each other because neither one could believe the other was alive.

Beat followed them in as well, but he found a much different surprise, when he spotted the young raccoon girl drawing pictures of a certain koala on the break room floor.

"C-caramel? Is that you?"

She looked up and gasped, running into his arms "Brother Beat! You ended up here too?"

You see, Caramel, Lifty, Shifty AND Beat were all orphans, and when Lifty and Shifty were off causing trouble, Beat was always the voice of reason. He had watched over her so much that she began calling him "Brother Beat" dispite any bloodline relation. It broke his heart when Indi adopted him and he couldn't see her any more, but now they were together, comforting each other in a crisis.

---------------------------------…………….

Disco's reunion with Flaky and Flippy was hardly a joyous one, though.

"So, what do you know?" He asked, laying Ivory carefully on the bed behind him The doctor opened his mouth, but Flaky beat him to it

"Santa Cabeza was the center of the South American drug trade. The zombies appear to be the result of it."

"So you're telling me our buddy Russell is pumping people full of zombie drugs?" But Disco received no answer, and he turned to the doctor for results. "That, that man is a terrorist! Don't try to explain his reasons with logic!"

Dr. Barnaby pulled himself up "I've done my research and submitted the results to the government!" He coughed loudly into one hand while walking with his cane in the other. He looked down into the hand and a chill ran down his spine. Blood, he had just hacked up his own blood "You people promised me escape, that helicopter's coming in two days, right? Well don't bother me untill then!"

And with that, he slammed the door shut and sat down in the boiler room. Disco let out and infuriated sigh, and checked his watch. He grinned slighly and muttered under his breath "11:30, enough dead ends. I'm gonna find out what's really going on!"

-------------------

Alright, doesn't seem like I'm getting rusty, now does it?

And to Mario112, I know you didn't want Indi to die, but it's the the role he played.

I only let beat live because I had already killed one of Meowth's Ocs and felt guilty doing it again, sorry.

Oh, and I solemnly swear I will not make another TF2 reference in ANY of my stories as long as I live.

Now review, or I will gut you like a cornish game hen! Whoops, sorry


	16. Petunia's Plight and Mysterious Stranger

**Author's Note**

_Hey ugly, it's really startin' ta bore me how much you suck. No really, you all suck big time. I mean, look at you! Look at you! Yer so friggin', just, there ain't words for how awful you are. You just suck on ice. Phoenix? Who da hell is that? What's really important is me, do you know who I am? I mean, do you have any idea who you're talking ta? Lemme break it down for ya; grass grows, sun shines, birds fly, and brotha, I do temp jobs. Yer usual author is dead, maybe. I guess, or maybe he was just too fat to get outta bed. Hell if I know, long story short I'm gonna be givin' you yer little story do-hicky for today. Now get outta my face and read numb-nuts._

**Disco Rising**

He was alone, in a darkened empty storeroom late at night. Disco left without a word as usual, given he has proven to be the most resourceful and often struck out on his own, usually to resuce someone, no one ever questioned him when he left.

"Where the hell is she?" He checked his watch, it was already ten minutes past their agreed meeting time. "I knew it. Can't trust anyone, especially not the bad guy's sister."

Then, just as Disco was readying to head back to the security room, he heard something. Footsteps, but not the ones of a shambling zombie, they were hurried, but it seemed like the runner was strained, as she let out a cry of pain on every other step. Then a shadow cast over the cardboard covered storefront where Disco was waiting, and the figure was thrown through the door onto the hard cement floor. It was Petunia, with a gaping leg wound, but she wasn't alone. A rogue zombie had attacked her, and had her pinned to the ground before Disco planted a bullet in the ghoul's skull. He quickly tossed the corpse off of her body and helped her up. But she could barely stand without aid.

"What happened, were you bitten?" He held her close, as she was gasping for breath. "You're dying! Who did this to you?"

"S-stop, it's not that bad. I just can't walk, Russell, he shot me." Her voice was strained, probably from bloodloss.

"Your brother shot you? What the hell is wrong with that guy!?"

" It's not his fault!" She yelled, but realizing how ridiculous she must sound, she calmed herself. " He's not himself right now. This whole thing, it's messed him..he just…." Her voice was fading, and she was struggling to stay conscious.

"Petunia! Petunia, don't leave me!" He shook her to try and keep her awake, but she had already blacked out. He checked her pulse, it was regular. "Alright, not much else I can do, but…" With a grunt Disco hoisted Petunia onto his back, holding on to her by her arms. He only made it about ten feet out of the storeroom when he realized a fatal flaw in his plan. For as far as he could see into the barely illuminated mall, zombies were slowly shambling toward them.

"Aw man, you're kidding me right? I can't get past this many zombies, I'd need a bazooka!" Disco stood there cursing his own bad luck until an enormous blast tore through a wave of zombies, then a second. He turned just as two small metal shells clinked against the ground to see a mysterious stranger reloading his twelve-gauge shotgun.

"Well well well," he chuckled, "Looks like you two lovebirds got yerself a guardian angel. Where ya headn'?" He was a tall dog, a husky, clad in a black leather jacket and a pair of bluejeans. His brown fur was a mess, probably from one too many fights.

"Who are you, and where'd you get that?" Disco gestured toward the shotgun.

"Friends call me Ruffy, or at least they would if I had any left. Zombies ended up chowing on most of 'em, so I took it upon myself to find ay survivors and get them where they need to be, and you're my first customers." Then he held up the shotgun proudly. "And since you're wondering, I found this little ol' number in the hunting shack, right down the hall."

"Well, if you don't mind escorting me and my friend to the hunting shack and then back to the security room, I'd really appreciate it."

"Security room? Now why would you want to go there? I can get you outta this place just as easily."

"Not so friend," Disco sighed, "The military's blocked the town off, and the only way out is the helicopter I've got coming tomorrow at noon."

"A helicopter? Hot damn, got a seat on there for me?"

"If you help me out, of course!"

"Well, looks like you've got yerself a deal, let's get moving stranger."

And the strange hound led the Disco to the hunting shack. It was isolated from the rest of the mall, down a lengthy hallway to a dead end where the shop resided. It was small, but even from outside the two men could easily see the stockpile of weapondry and one odd character inside clenching a shotgun of his own. A black rabbit, clad in a hutning jacket was swigging straight from a bottle of wine while holding the shotgun lazily in his free hand.

"Anybody you know?" Disco motioned toward the shop.

"Nope, and I don't like the look in his boozed up eyes." He walked toward the shop, and called over his shoulder. "Lemme handle this."

Upon entering, the rabbit, who seemed calm, suddenly sprung up and held the shotgun with both hands up to Ruffy. The barrel shook in his hands, and he sounded nervous, yet infuriated at the stranger

"Listen here buddy, you get the hell out!" He said, taking steady aim " This here is my holdout, and I don't want no trouble. I don't trust zombies as far as I can throw 'em, but I trust people even less!"

"Neither do I, and we got a whole buncha people out there who need guns out here, so let's be reas" But the rabbit would here no more, and a click of the shotgun gave Ruffy not but a second to duck behind a store display for cover.

"Now lookit what chu made me do!" The rabbit slurred, reloading, "I can't afford to trust nobody!"

"Sunovabitch!" Ruffy loaded his shotgun. "Okay you booze-hound, you asked for it!" Ruffy popped up from behind his barrier and blasted a shot, but the rabbit took the blast laughing.

"That all you got?" He fired twice, but Ruffy rolled underneath another barrier, slowly closing in on him.

"Shit," He thought while reloading, "He must have a vest or something." Ruffy resurfaced and fired a shot, staggering his foe and allowing him to roll over the counter where he could face the rabbit directly. He held his shotgun up to the rabbit's face and stood strong.

"Now pal, you gonna give us the guns, or what?" Ruffy said, his voice tinged with rage.

The rabbit only laughed, an held up his own shotgun. "No such luck, now suck lead!" he clicked the trigger, but nothing happened. Crack, the rabbit, felt a wave of shock as he realized he'd forgotten to load his shotgun after his last attack. Now, without his shotgun, the over-confident rabbit was oddly nervous.

"Uhh, hehe, you don't think I woulda…" Crack stuttered and trailed off.

Ruffy's eyes darted around the floor behind the counter. Bodies of zombies and empty wine bottles littered the floor, and there was a girl bound and gagged in the corner. She was in her early twenties, a dalmation, and she grew wide-eyed at the sight of someone other than her captor.

"Who's she?" Ruffy growled, steadying his aim on Crack's skull.

Crack laughed nervously, "uh, she's, uh a friend… I didn't do nothin to her I promise!"

"Why's she tied up?"

"Well, uh, you see she's…."

"Wrong answer." And Ruffy put more pressurse the trigger, and the rabbit leapt over the counter in fear.

"Leave me alone, ya bullies!" He called over his shoulder, scrambling out the door. "Y'all want guns so bad yer willin' ta kill for 'em?" Crack ran right past Disco, who had set Petunia on the floor to rest, and without noticing ran straight into a crowd of the undead. The last thing Crack saw when he turned his head was a zombie pouncing on him and biting into his neck with a digusting snap and the sound of gushing blood.

Back inside the hunting shack, Ruffy and just finished untying the dalmation, who fell into his arms crying.

"Hey, hey now, it's alright!" He said to console her "Don't worry, I'm here to protect ya. By the way, the name's Ruffy. What's yours?"

She sniffed away at her tears "I, I'm Spotty. Nice to meet you. Oh, god" she hung her head again "That disgusting rabbit. While I was tied up he kept, touching me. All over, I feel so filthy…."

Suddenly, Disco burst through the doors, in shock. "Ruffy! And who's she?"

"A friend, now what is it?" Ruffy said, standing back up

"You've gotta come out and here this, someone's announcing something over the PA!"

The two dogs followed Disco out, and listened with them to the announcement.

"Petunia, please, come back to me! I didn't mean to shoot you, please, I'm sorry! I love you, you can't just leave me!" It was Russell's voice " If you don't come back, I'm going to end it all. You know what I mean…."

"Oh my god…" the Disco's head turned to find Petunia, awake on the ground "He's really going to do it…."

"What, what is he doing?" Disco ran to her, kneeling to face her.

"I'll explain on the way, we need to get to the security room!"

Disco and Ruffy exchanged glances. "Take this," Ruffy tossed him a shotgun, and turned to Spotty "Spots, help Petunia up, she can't walk well. Me and Disco are gonna clear a path…"

_So, yeah, hope ya enjoyed that touching little story, ya fruitcakes. Oh, and that Phoenix dude wanted you folks to know that he's thanking Sandman78308 for Crack, Neptune's heart for Spotty, and Deepdarkdebt09 for Ruffy. Oh, and he's ABSOLUTELY NO LONGER ACCEPTING OCS! So cut it out, will ya?(Gets backstabbed.)_

_(Definitely not scout) Zis has been scout, and remember, rainbows make me cry! OVER!_


	17. End It All

**Author's Note**

Man, it's winding down now, almost finished…. Just guessing off the top of my head but I don't think it'll be more than five chapters until the end. I guess there's only one thing to do… LIVE IT THE HELL UP WHILE THIS PARTY TRAIN'S STILL A-ROLLIN'! Which means I'm gonna keep updating as often as I can, which regrettably won't be very often….

BUT, just wait until the end of the month, and then we'll really get cookin'!

Oh, and in case you're wondering, this scene'll contain a couple unauthorized relationships, someone's OC paired with someone else's OC without their permission. Like I said, they're unauthorized so don't take them too seriously, unless you like them ;-). So with that said, kick back, relax and enjoy a tasty little tidbit of….

**Disco Rising**

Flippy sat on the end of the sofa, impatiently awaiting Disco's return so they could take action. Flaky sat across from him near the numerous monitor screens checking on their progress, and Dr. Barnaby sat on the floor nearby, the recent announcement prompting him to emerge from the boiler room to seek company. The heavy silence in the room was broken when Flaky noticed Disco's group in a security camera nearby their safe house.

"Flippy, it's Disco! He's got friends, and guns!" She pointed to the monitor screen, and Flippy stood to look. Disco, having raided the gun store, was toting a backpack full of ammunition and a few rifles while shooting down a few waves of zombies along with Ruffy, whom neither Flaky nor Flippy had ever met. The two girls were close behind, Spotty letting Petunia rest on her shoulder to help her walk.

"Son of a bitch" Flippy smiled, "This idiot might just be a miracle worker."

"We're gonna need a miracle if that psycho was really going to 'end it all'" Flaky said forebodingly.

…

Once Disco entered the security room, Flippy stepped up and stared him down, before asking, "So, do you have any idea what Russell meant by 'end it all'?"

"Heh, nope." Disco gave his cocky smile "But _she_ might" He pointed his thumb back at Petunia, whom Spotty had just struggled to place carefully on the sofa in the monitor room.

"Who's she?"

"Russell's sister, but don't worry, I worked my magic and she's with us." Disco gave a low growl.

"Ugh, don't ever say that again," Flippy groaned, and turned to Petunia "Listen here, I now you may not trust me-"

"You mean, because this is your fault" Petunia said accusingly

But Flippy kept his cool "Regardless, what did your brother mean when he said he was going to 'end it all'"

Petunia gave a deep sigh and looked down, not as if she thought Flippy wouldn't like the answer, but because she _knew _he wouldn't.

"Bombs," She said sullenly, "my brother planted bombs down in the parking garage. He plans to detonate them, blow up the mall, and release the parasites into the atmosphere…"

"What? But, if they go off in the parking garage then it'll ignite the gas pipes running underneath the mall and blow us sky-high!" Said Mole, who couldn't help but overhear the conversation.

"Wait a minute, parasites? What do you mean parasites?" Disco asked.

"God, don't you know anything? The parasites are what caused this, here and in Santa Cabeza!" Petunia said, her voice tinged with disgust "I thought your professor would inform you." Everyone shot looks at Dr Barnaby, who attempted to hide his face from their interrogating eyes.

"Look," Flippy interjected, "we don't have time for this, as far as we know Russell may have already started the countdown on those bombs, we've got to get moving."

"You'll never get to them in time! Russell planted the bombs in six different locations across the parking garage in six separate trucks. He even made sure to slash the tires of the trucks to make sure you couldn't transport them quickly." Petunia said, almost bragging at her brother's ingenuity.

"She may be right, we need help, maybe some of the other survivors could..." Disco began, but Flippy cut him off.

"We can't enlist them like this, the survivors are civilians!"

"So am I." Disco said coldly, Flippy opened his mouth to fight, but couldn't find the words.

"Alright, but only those capable of handling their own." He finally said, submitting.

"Oh, I don't think that'll be a problem." Disco gave his winning smile again and headed into the break room.

…..

Disco stood above them, standing on a chair to have their full attention and spoke with a stony face, he was never more serious in his life "So, do you all understand? Our lives are in danger and we need a few individuals to step forward and help Flippy and I in the retrieval and disarming of the bombs. Any volunteers?"

Cuddles stepped forward, "You're kidding right, me and Toothy are in it 100%!" Toothy, however, seemed less than confident, but he was still behind Cuddles.

Chad stepped up; Light and Dark close behind him, "I'm not going to let anyone else die on my watch, not after what happened to my brother."

"Me neither, I almost lost my sister, and I'm not gonna let it happen again," Dark said, her eyes blazing, "We're stopping those bombs!"

Grace was the next one up, dragging Tyler by his arm, "We're in too!"

"W-we are?" Tyler asked nervously.

"Yeah, you know your way around a bomb, right?" She asked, angrily.

"B-but those were Molotov cocktails and pipe bombs! I don't know how to make a time bomb, much less defuse one!" He protested, but Grace would hear no more, as far as she was concerned, he had just been enlisted.

BJ, Chunky and Ruffy were next in line, BJ spoke for the group, "I can't walk well, but if you'll take me I feel obligated to lend a hand. Plus I brought this along!" He held up the ceremonial sword proudly, but a hand grabbed it by the blade and wretched it from him.

Crystal, the silent bear had stolen it from him "I believe this is mine. After all, Meth was my ex." She said coldly, the group stared at her, but soon diverted their attention back to Disco and Flippy, as the military bear addressed them, but he was interrupted before he could begin by Mole,

"Uh, pardon me, but I've got a couple spare maps of the parking garage and some walkie talkies if they'll help."

Petunia spoke up, "I now the location of the bombs, I can mark them off on the maps for you all. And, the bombs have to be armed manually, so there's a chance Russell might still be in there. If you find him, please make him stop, and tell him I'm sorry"

Finally Flippy found his opportunity to speak "Alright, listen, we're leaving for the parking garage, we're going to commandeer a couple cars and get in there to disarm the bombs. Say your goodbyes to anyone you care about and get moving!"

…..

Disco, as he was preparing his equipment and making sure he had batteries in his camera, felt a tug on his coat. He looked down to find Perfect, the young Japanese squirrel he had rescued so long ago. Well, it seemed like a while ago, but it was really only two days ago. She held up a small piece of paper without a word, he took it gingerly from her hands. It was a picture of him, drawn up in a messy crayon and almost unrecognizable, but sincere and sweet at the same time. Disco found a few sloppy Japanese characters written at the bottom of the page:

私のヒーロー

As he fished out the beginner's Japanese book from his coat pocket, Perfect ran off shyly. He thumbed through the pages and found the proper translation, smiling warmly

"My Hero"

…

Ruffy was polishing his shotgun and getting when he felt a hand on his shoulder, turning to find Spotty standing above him. Her hand was a little sweaty, and she looked away from him repeatedly before finally talking to him quietly.

"You're, um headed into the parking garage?" She asked,

"That I am, you worried?" He said, happily.

"No, it's jus that…I tried to get out that way one time while I was here, it's swarming with zombies."

"Well, I got a shotgun, so there's no worry!" He stood up and grinned dumbly at her, causing her to smile a little bit, "No don't go cryin' when I'm gone, eh sweet cheeks?" He pinched one of her cheeks, and she slapped his hand away,

"HUMPH! Like I'd care!" She said, oddly frustrated with him, and turned away "GOD! Men are so stupid!!!"

BJ, who had been sitting nearby, stared blankly at her when she left, and Ruffy, trying to figure out what was going on, turned to him.

"Uhh, what it sumthin' I said?"

…

Chunky was trying to pack a couple supplies, but it way s a little difficult with the rambunctious purple raccoon bouncing around bombarding him with questions.

"Chunky, Chunky, are you gonna go out there and fight the zombies? Huh, are ya? What if you get hurt, I bet you won't because you're too tough! Those zombies try an' bite you and they'll break their teeth, right Chunky?"

Just when he felt his last nerve was going to snap, Chunky heard a voice silence her.

"Caramel! Please, Chunky's got a lot on his plate today, he's gotta be ready. He turned to find Beat, standing next to Caramel with his hand on her shoulder. He spoke softly, still nervous, but much more confident without his "father" around, "So I heard, you, uh, saved Caramel."

Chunky looked away shyly, "Oh, no I didn't do anything, Disco,"

"Told me you saved him too. And I just wanted to say, thank you. If I lost Caramel, I don't know what I would do…" Beat teared up a little, but in joy, not in sorrow. Caramel ran over to Chunky and wrapped her arms around his big belly one more time before he left.

"Go be a hero Brother Chunky! Save the day!" She said giggling, and Chunky couldn't help but feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

"I-I will save the day for you Caramel" He said, almost crying himself as he picked up the backpack of supplies and headed out the door.

…..

Tyler was a little saddened as he packed up a few of his Molotov's and pipe bombs. He was a bit isolated, as many of the other survivors were wary of him because of his 'break down' in the mall before Disco had arrived. He was an alright guy, but after the mishap with the Molotov's no one wanted to get to close to him, fearing they might get burned if he snaps again. With a lonely sigh, he turned to leave the security room, but turned right into a familiar green squirrel. It was Chino, smiling happily at him.

"Hey, goin' to disarm some bombs, 'eh Mister Molotov?" She joked.

Tyler blushed and looked away, "Uh, yeah, but it's not like you'd care…"

"Care, of course I care! You're going to save us all, and besides I'd hate it if we didn't make it out of this alive."

"Uh, 'we'?" He repeated awkwardly, "Why do you want both of us to make it out?"

She giggled and said, "Because, you still owe me a double latte!"

"Oh, I see." Tyler turned to leave, but Chino caught him by the shoulder and turned him around.

"Y'know, when I said that I meant I wanted you to take me out for one!" She said, causing Tyler's face to turn a crimson red. "Good luck, you little pyro!" And with that she smooched him on the cheek and pushed him to the door, realizing that he was so embarrassed that he'd need some help getting on track.

….

They met outside the parking garage, Flippy having divided them into groups, and each group having a car to navigate the sea of corpses that lined the underground garage. Flippy, sitting in a small sports car with Disco, addressed the team.

"Alright, just so we're clear! Disco and I are going to disarm the bomb nearest to the entrance and search for any sign of Russell. Chunky, BJ and Crystal are going after the bomb near the turnabout. Tyler and Grace take the bomb near the mutinous tunnels! Cuddles and Toothy take out the bomb under the home supply store, and provide support if needed for Ruffy, who is going to alone to take out the bomb in the southernmost portion of the garage. Chad, Light and dark are going to be in the northeastern area of the mall, it's gonna be tough for you guys, you're pretty far from the entrance but I'm sure you can handle it." Flippy then motioned to Disco to turn the key and rev the engines, "Alright, move out!"

The cars sped out down the ramp into the barely illuminated parking garage, each one turning right into the deeper tunnels. Disco and Flippy were second to last, because they were the only ones heading right, near the butcher's shop beneath the grocery store. Ruffy was behind them, not because he was headed the same way, but it was safest if the small motorcycle went last, allowing the larger vehicles to mow down the swarms of zombies that infested the underground tunnels. The three were just about to head their separate ways when a large truck pulled up beside Disco and Flippy's car, causing them to slow to a stop next to it.

"Did we send anyone out in a truck?" Disco questioned, staring at the tinted windows of the nearby vehicle.

"No, we didn't, which doesn't bode well for us." Flippy said, and just as he finished, the driver's seat window rolled down just enough to allow a hand to reach out and drop a small metal canister. Flippy had no time to react, because by the time he realized what it was, it was too late.

"GRENADE!" He shouted, and the explosive detonated underneath the car, sending it flying into a wall. Disco and Flippy rolled out of the wreck, injured, but barely. The truck that attacked them was already speeding away, but Flippy wouldn't let Russell escape this time. He pulled out his handgun and fired at the truck, planting a bullet in the two back wheels. The truck screeched to a halt and Russell tumbled out, realizing that he may just be captured at last as the two bears closed in on him.

But of course, he wouldn't be defeated so easily. Reaching into his coat, Russell pulled the pins out of six grenades at once and threw them at his pursuers. Both bears were caught off guard by the last ditch attack, and couldn't pull out their hanguns in time. But, before the grenades could get either of them in their blast radius, two shells shot out behind them, detonating them harmlessly in the air.

Ruffy, who was close enough behind them to hear their crash, had taken a minor detour to help them out. Flippy was hardly concerned with this though, and frantically searched the tunnel as far out as he could see for Russell. In the distance he could make out the otter escaping down towards a storage warehouse on the far end of the mall.

"Disco, take care of the bomb, I'm going after him," He said, and turned to Ruffy "You, get back to your mission, we don't stray from orders!" Ruffy took the command and drove off while Flippy, without another word went sprinting off in Russell's direction. Disco stood dumbfounded, having just lost his only ride.

"But, how am I supposed to," he looked around and noticed a small skateboard proped up against the wall. "Oh, you've gotta be kidding me…"

He hung his head and mounted his only ride, wheeling helplessly towards the mobs of zombies inbetween him and the bomb.

Heh, I kinda liked that. Y'know I wasn't really planning to do this, I was just gonna have Disco disarm the bombs himself like he does in the game, but I'd thought some of you would enjoy seeing your characters again, so I did this. Hope everybody likes it,

Oh, and I REALLY Hope nobody minded those little RuffyxSpotty and TylerxChino pairings. Just having a little fun over here…

So, um, Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night! (Sorry, I'm running out of sign-offs)


	18. End It All Pt 2

**Author's Note**

Dearest friends, I wanted to just let you know that I am still alive and kicking. It's just, I've been distracted with, distracting stuff. Like videogames. And holiday shopping. And musicals. Anyhow it gets tough writing, especially when I could be shooting zombies instead. But, here I am, writing for my fans. Oh, speaking of fans, I now have a deviantart account, where I'll be posting some work I commissioned from my friend, and a few of my own lousy little sketches. And, once I finish this I'm going to commission something very special for all of you who helped me get this story off the ground. But enough senseless chatter, back to the ZOMBIES!

**Disco Rising**

Back in the security room, Flaky, Lala, Chino, and Petunia sat quietly eyeing the monitor screens. There were few cameras in the underground parking lot where Russell had planted his bombs, so they only ever caught quick glimpses of their saviors in action. Flaky, who couldn't bear to watch after the car accident she just witness Flippy barely survive, was still typing away at her laptop. For a while, she had tried to get through the signal jammer, but to no avail. Now, she was keeping a journal, just to kill time. Chino was eagerly watching the monitors with Lala. This was far surpassing any movie they'd ever seen, just because they were in it. Petunia finally broke the silence.

"I hope you realize we're doomed. Russell will never give up, not after what we've been through."

Flaky pivoted her seat to face her, a mix of concern and confusion lined her eyes. "What do you mean?"

"We grew up in Santa Cabeza," a bitter tinge dug at Petunia's cheek "It was our home until…"

"I understand, it must have been difficult living in Santa Cabeza, with all of the drug trafficking."

Petunia's face took on a look of disgust "What, drug trafficking? That's the lie they fed you Americans? You don't understand anything about my pain." Flaky stood, to come closer to her, kneeling down to meet the girl at eye level.

"What are you talking about? The professor,"

"Lied to you, you know nothing. If you care so much about saving humanity then listen to me, and listen to how you Americans treat other humans" These words drew Lala and Chino, as Petunia took her locket in hand and with a melancholy sigh began to tell what had happened to Santa Cabeza.

…

Chunky's white-knuckled grip on the steering wheel accurately portrayed how unsteady he was at driving. In all honesty though, a Nascar driver would be more than a little unsteady too if he was driving through a wave of zombies. Crystal and BJ sat in the backseat, trying to knock away any stray undead that latched onto the car. Crystal clutched the large ceremonial sword coolly, as if she had nothing in the world to fear anymore. BJ, who felt the place was far too silent, decided he would try his luck and talk to her.

"So uh, you mentioned your boyfriend? That sword used to be his?" He asked, swatting away a few undead.

"Yeah, it was his," She said without turning to look at him, "Until Disco killed him."

"Wait, you mean, oh shit. He was the priest, Meth?"

"He's not a priest. He was just trying to, watch your left!"

BJ jumped in his seat and clubbed a zombie that had snuck up on him with the lead pipe. "Hey Chunky, what's going on? Why aren't we moving?"

"We're uh, here? The bomb site at least. It says so on the map, it's in that truck over there!" Chunky pointed to a large meat truck, its tires slashed and the back door slightly open. "We just gotta get over there, and it doesn't look like there are too many zombies."

The group climbed out of the car, Crystal slashing a pathway out in front with the sword. Upon reaching the truck Chunky stepped forward to examine the bomb while Crystal and BJ kept the oncoming horde back.

"So, what exactly was your boyfriend doing again? Sacrificing us and all?" BJ asked sarcastically as he swatted away the approaching undead.

"Hmph, as if you'd care." Crystal said, slicing down zombies four at a time. She caught a glance from BJ that showed he really did care, a sort of impatient concern "He just lost his way, is all. He was trying to give people hope, and he just overdid it. He lost a lot of friends when this happened. He was never a religious man, but he turned to God. He said he heard things, terrible things that he must do to appease the powers that be and save us, but I just don't know why he did what he did. I couldn't stay with him after he started killing people, but when I ran, he snapped. Maybe if I stayed with him this might've turned out differently…"

BJ stopped swinging "I'm sorry Crystal, I just, you know, I guess I was judging him a little quickly."

"It's okay. He's better off now, I guess. I wonder if Meth was doing what he was asked by,"

Chunky called from the truck, his voice concerned, "Uhh, guys, hate to break up your heart-to-heart here, but I can't disarm this thing! What should we do?"

"Hold on, Disco gave me a transceiver!" BJ said calling him on the device "Hello? What? What happened? Okay, I gotcha!" He clicked the transceiver off " Disco and Flippy split up. Disco's almost got the bomb and Flippy's going after Russell! He needs us to get the bomb to the entrance, if we can't disarm them then setting them off outside it the next best thing, they only have enough juice to blow up the gas pipes in here anyway!"

...

Ruffy, who had successfully obtained his bomb, was now meeting up with Cuddles and Toothy, who had also grabbed their bomb.

"So, what's the word from the boss?" Ruffy joked. He was oddly calm for someone surrounded by zombies in a maze of dimly-lit tunnels.

"Well, we couldn't disarm ours, and we're guessing you've been just as unsuccessful?" Ruffy nodded in agreement and Cuddles continued "Well, Disco told us we gotta get these things out of the tunnels and quick."

"Wait, WHAT?" Toothy asked, terrified "You told me you disarmed that thing! I don't wanna ride around with an armed bomb in our car!"

"Toothy, shut up! We're risking our lives for everyone else's safety! Now we don't have much time, you up for a ride Ruffy?"

Ruffy drew a clever smirk across his face, "Just one request, I call shotgun."

…

Grace was eagerly fighting zombies barehanded, punching them to the ground and applying her leather boots to skulls with a sadistic glee. Tyler, meanwhile, was hardly enjoying himself. Their car was immovable; so many corpses were wedged in the wheels that the car just simply broke down right by the bomb. On top of that, he was now picking and plucking at various wires on the bomb while trying not to accidentally detonate it. He was so focused on the bomb that when his pocket began beeping he nearly triggered the bomb and blew everyone sky high, just nearly though. He pulled the transceiver from his pocket and nervously replied.

"Uh, h-hello, Disco? We need to… Oh okay, but our ride was… I got it…" Tyler flicked off the device and called to his friend "Grace, we gotta get the bomb out of here; Disco says there's not hope disarming it!"

"Get out of here? With what?" She called back, knocking a few more zombies flat. She was right, they had no vehicle since their car had been jammed, and the truck that Russell had hidden the bomb in had its tires slashed. But, then hope came in the form of a silver and red stallion.

"There! A motorcycle!" Tyler pointed to the far side of the small section of parking lot they had found the bomb in.

"Well, great, but one problem, it's kind of made for one.." Grace said skeptically. She was, once again, right. There was no way they could both fit on the small motorcycle safely, especially while navigating the zombie filled tunnels. Tyler considered his options, and tossed the bomb into Grace's hands.

"Get outta here. I'll find my own way out; I owe you for all the trouble…" He said solemnly.

"What? Quit being so noble, we can both make it out of,"

"Grace! Shut up!" She was taken aback by Tyler's sudden courage "I said get out, just do me a favor and save us. One of our lives won't matter if that bomb goes off, especially if it spreads the virus around the world. Now go!"

Grace took a step back, and blinked at him in shock. "Uh, okay, fine. Thanks Tyler." She mounted the bike, knocked the kickstand out from underneath her, and drove off, the bomb on her back. Tyler pulled a Molotov from his pocket and lit it, tearing up. He screamed at the top of his lungs after Grace

"TELL CHINO I'M SORRY! TELL HER I STILL WISH I COULD BUY HER THAT LATTE! AND, AND TELL DISCO I DIDN'T DIE A COWARD!!!!"

And, even through the loud engine of the motorcycle, grace heard every word. A tear ran down her cheek as she heard the sound of glass shattering on the ground behind her, and a roaring fire blazing up.

….

Chad could barely see, pulling himself out of the flaming wreck that he, Light, and Dark were using to get to their bomb. He grasped his head in pain, trying to remember what happened. They were driving around, and then that zombie, it was carrying something. God knows why it was carrying a tank of helium, but by the time they realized what was going on he'd already hit it, and they went flying…

"SHIT!" Realization hit him like a dagger, "Light, Dark! Where are you?" He shouted, looking around. He saw the flaming wreck of their car and ran towards it, fearing the worst, but a cold chill ran up his spine when he heard a cry from behind.

"Chad, wait! We're over here!" He turned to find Light and Dark, nearby a meat packaging truck. They were examining it and had found the bomb hidden it its refrigerated storage compartment.

"We can't figure out how to disarm it! Do you still have the transceiver that we got from Mole?" Light asked.

"Oh, yeah, here, lemme give him a call…" Chad flicked on the walkie-talkie and muttered into it. His face became stolid, and he turned to face the two ninjas. "Light, Dark, get this thing out of here." He tossed the bomb into Dark's hands "Can you run along these walls, you know, to get around the zombies?"

"Of course but, what about you?" Light asked "We can't just leave you behind!"

"I'm afraid you'll have to, little lady. Disco needs these bombs out of here ASAP, and I'd just slow you down."

"B-but what about" Light began tearing up, but Dark put her hand on her sister's shoulder to comfort you

"Please Light, he's right. We'll get out of here, and Chad will make his own way out, right?" She said, turning to Chad.

"You know it, now get out of here. That's an order." Light and Dark leapt skyward, easily dashing across the walls above the zombies. Chad laughed a little to himself and pulled out his brother's machete. He slowly walked toward the zombies, twirling it in his hand, and humming a little tune to himself.

"Well, looks like I'm meeting up with you sooner than I thought, Rad…."

…

This was it, Flippy had Russell cornered. After the explosion he was able to chase the elusive terrorist down to a small, secluded storage facility inside the maintenance tunnels of the mall.

"This is it you son of a bitch!" he shouted as he kicked in the door to Russell's final hiding spot. He held his pistol forward, checking the corners of the medium sized room. There were only a very few places where he could hide.

"Come out peacefully and we can end this. I don't want to hurt you; I just want to save these people." Flippy called to the darkness. Russell's voice called back.

"No one came to save my people!" he leapt from the darkness and fired his pistol, but to no avail, Flippy took cover behind a self. Checking his pistol's ammunition, Flippy readied himself for another attack. "Alright, here we go!" he jumped out from behind and caught Russell off guard, planting a few rounds in his shoulder. The shock of pain caused Russell to drop his pistol, and forced him to switch to his backup weapon. Flippy stood over him holding his pistol, so confident he had won that he was caught off guard by Russell's last ditch attack. He leapt up from his prone position and dug a small dagger deep into Flippy's shoulder. The bear recoiled in pain, giving enough time for Russell to throw him through another door, which he quickly locked from the outside.

"I'll see you in hell, American bastard.." Russell groaned, his wounds were almost fatal, but he wouldn't die yet. Not until his home was avenged. He slowly limped away, gasping for breath.

Inside the door he had just been shoved into, Flippy managed to pull himself up. He was still bleeding heavily, as Russell had pulled the knife from his shoulder, opening the wound further. Standing up, he felt his belt and realized he had lost his handgun. It was dark, so he pulled out a small flashlight to illuminate the room and hopefully find his gun. The light shined on a horde of undead faces, slowly lurching toward him. Flippy turned in 360 degrees, shining the light in every direction, but they all showed the same thing, the living dead, all closing in on him. He muttered to himself

"Well, damn"

…

"Where is he?" Grace asked, tossing her bomb aside where the others had placed theirs.

"Disco? Ya got me, I haven't seen him since he and Flippy split up." Ruffy responded, lighting a cigarette.

"Well, don't worry about it," Light said, "Disco's a hero, he'll make it out of this okay."

Just then, two things happened. The bombs the group had laid in a stack on the far end of the parking lot all began to beep rapidly, and a girlish shriek came from the tunnels. Everyone looked towards the tunnels to find Disco, clutching a beeping bomb and running frantically up the ramp up into the mall. He was shouting a string of curses to foul and too unintelligible to print, as one could expect someone holding a live bomb about to explode to say. Just when the beeping seemed to hit its climax, Disco threw the bomb into the air and it, along with the others the group and gotten safely away from, exploded. He fell to his knees, panting for breath. Upon closer inspection, anyone nearby noticed he was drenched in blood and sweat, his clothing torn.

"Huff, huff, did, huff, everyone get their bombs?" There was no protest, so he assumed they had " And did everyone get out? Where's Tyler and Chad, and did Flippy come out here?"

Dark stepped up "We had to leave Chad behind, we had no choice. But, we don't know what happened to Flippy or Tyler."

Grace, trying not to look anyone in the eyes, stepped up too," I, uh, Tyler made me leave him behind so I could get the bomb out, but nobody's seen Flippy."

"Well, I," Suddenly, Disco's pocket chimed, he pulled out the transceiver and heard Flaky's voice. "What's going on? Petunia? Alright, we got the bombs, they went off, but we were able to get them out of the tunnels beforehand. Okay, we'll be right there" he hung up.

"Alright everyone, back to the security room!"

* * *

Man, that was intense, if I do say so myself. So, three characters left in the maintenance tunnels. I wonder if any of them will make it out. Well, okay, I'll tell you that only two of them will live and one will die, but who? Will it be Tyler who bites the dust? Or Maybe Chad will kick the bucket? But can Flippy really escape with his wounds? No telling if you figure it out!

Phoenix Reece, leaving you hanging!


	19. Santa Cabeza

**Author's Note**

(Scene opens with me sitting in a large chair in a finely decorated room in front of a fireplace, smoking a pipe with a large mastiff at my side. I'm reading a small, leather-bound book, wearing a bathrobe and a fez)

Oh hello there. What chapter? Of what? Disco rising, when did I promise that? Earlier today? I did? What do you mean what have I been doing all day because I had the day off? How did you know I had a snow day? I wrote that too? What do you mean stop repeating everything you say? What do you mean this joke is getting old? Okay, fine, back to writing….

**Disco Rising**

"So," Flaky said as Disco seated himself across from her. They were alone, the other survivors were relaxing in the break room, splitting their rations and sharing stories of heroism. It was only Disco, Flaky, Petunia, and Pop, who was still crouching in the corner. "We've found out some very interesting information from your little girlfriend." She nodded in Petunia's direction and she spoke up.

"What the doctor told you was a lie. The infection is not caused by drugs, at least not directly. Twenty years ago your government was doing unauthorized research in my hometown of Santa Cabeza, a small Mexican village. Through their experimentation they created a parasite that infected the local cattle."

"Wait a minute," Disco interrupted "Zombie livestock, is this for real?"

"The cattle infected the village," She said, completely ignoring Disco "people began to turn into zombies, almost all of them were monsters soon enough. Then, just when we thought we escaped, my family and I, we, we…" She began to sob, tears welling in her eyes.

"Her parents were killed by government agents to prevent the events of Santa Cabeza from being leaked," Flaky continued for her, her voice cold "Russell and Petunia were just barely able to escape with their lives."

"Oh my God," Disco said, and then came to a grim realization. He turned to the Dr, kneeling in the corner. "You bastard, you were part of this! You were in Santa Cabeza!"

The professor's eyes took on a terrible glow. The kind that spoke for him, "you caught me, I lied" his terrified look said. Disco sprung up and began to shake him by his collar.

"You son of a bitch! How could you keep quiet all these years after you killed all those innocent people?"

Dr. Barnaby pushed him away, falling to his knees. He began to cough furiously, splattering blood across the floor. He pulled his head up and stared at Disco with dying eyes,

"That research, was… absolutely necessary…. We were working on a new way to cultivate livestock. Do you have ANY idea how much meat America consumes in a SINGLE day?" He tried to stand, but fell backwards clutching at the air. Disco kneeled down next to Dr. Barnaby, trying to get anything else out of him.

"I haven't done…anything…wrong…" He said, with his dying breath, and collapsed in a pool of his own blood. Disco stood, snapped a picture of the professor and without a word sat next to Petunia. Flaky, meanwhile, kneeled down to examine Pop's remains.

"My god," She whispered, rubbing Pop's thick blood between her fingers.

"So, I'm sorry about what happened. At Santa Cabeza, I mean" Disco said to Petunia,

"It wasn't you," Petunia said, wiping her tear, "I've been blaming it on people like you, but to be honest you're the exact opposite. You only want to help."

"I only want the truth, regardless of who it helps." He was staring at her again, but Petunia didn't seem to care. Their eyes meet, but in an instant the moment was shattered by a scream. Disco turned to find Flaky, pinned to the ground by the now fully-transformed Dr. Barnaby. He went to pull out his handgun, but Petunia beat him to the punch, firing with her own and re-killing the professor with a headshot.

"Nice aim." Disco smirked, but Petunia was too busy helping Flaky up to hear him.

"Its fine, I'm fine," She said, "He only managed to scratch me." Flaky clutched her right shoulder and seated herself in front of the monitors. She watched the screens anxiously, to kill time until Flippy arrived. Disco had said to her that he wasn't sure if he was going to make it, but he had to be wrong. Her eyes darted blankly about the screens until she noticed something on one of the Maintenance tunnel security cameras.

"Guys, come quickly!" Disco and Petunia were close behind "Look at this, it's Russell." She pointed to a screen showing Russell, badly wounded, being dragged into a room by a large blue moose. The moose was an enormous goliath of a man, standing at least 6' 5" with girth to match, wearing a bloodstained apron. In one hand he held the otter by his feet, who was futilely struggling to escape his captor, and in the other he clenched a gristly meat cleaver.

"Oh my God, Russell, no, no, no…" Petunia clutched her necklace and closed her eyes, uttering a small prayer.

"I'm going after him" Disco said, picking up a baseball bat, a hunting knife and his handgun.

"Are you kidding, going into the tunnels once is suicide, you'll never make it through twice!" Flaky protested.

"We don't have a choice. If we don't get Russell before it's too late we're fucked." He walked toward the AC unit to leave, when Petunia came up behind him.

"Here, give me your map, I want you to bring Russell to me, in our hideout." She took his map of the mall and marked off a location, in the northern plaza "we were hiding there until you found us, if we can be alone it would be easier to negotiate with him."

"Alright, and I promise Petunia, I'm getting your brother back, and we're getting out of here." She embraced him in a hug, and he left without another word.

…

This trip into the tunnels was considerably easier, without Russell and his nearly endless supply of grenades to plague Disco. He had stolen another car, (though it was hardly stealing during the zombie apocalypse) and made his way to the location the security camera had shown. He checked his map and noticed where Russell had ended up.

"A butcher's shop?" He said to himself as he walked into the shop. It was a disgusting sight, oddly devoid of zombies. Dead cattle were strung up across the small store, blood filled buckets and cleavers littered the floor. He walked cautiously through the store, keeping an eye out for the psychopathic moose.

"OH! A customer!" He jumped at the voice, and found himself approached by the same moose who had attacked Russell. "Good afternoon sir, Lumpy Moose at your service. What can I get you?" The enormous beast was oddly kind to him, but still clutched the meat cleaver.

"Uh, um, I er" Disco stuttered in the face of such an inhuman monster, and honestly didn't want to try his patience. He looked around the store and spotted Russell, hanging up with the rest of the meat.

"I want that one!" He pointed, "That man, I mean, meat." Lumpy gave a hearty smile and laughed. He poked Disco's chest,

"You sir have a fine eye, this one's fresh. Yes?" He laughed "Just a moment and you'll taste some of the finest ground beef around!" He pressed a nearby button and the meat racks began to slide along the rails they were attached to towards a meat grinder.

"Oh, no no, you don't understand! I don't want ground beef; I want it whole can I buy the whole thing?" Disco asked desperately. The moose shot him a disgusted look.

"Zombie meat is spoiled meat! I can't serve it to my customers," Lumpy put a hand on his chest and smiled, "I have a reputation to uphold!" And then he simply went back to sharpening his butcher's knife, completely ignoring the bear.

"All right, we're going to have to this the hard way, aren't we?" Disco pulled out the baseball bat, and with an enormous force he swung down, splitting the bat over the moose's head. Lumpy turned and squinted angrily at Disco, as if that was nothing but an annoyance. He began to swing his cleaver wildly, while charging at him, Disco just barely avoiding the attack.

"Okay, no more playing around!" Disco rolled behind a counter and fired at Lumpy, landing five shots into the moose's chest. He screamed, but didn't even shudder. Instead, Lumpy lifted up one of the hanging racks of meat, and threw the entire 250 pounds of dead cow at Disco who ducked under the counter once again.

"!" Lumpy screamed, leaping over the counter and charging at Disco with his meat cleaver. He sprinted away, just managing to outpace the goliath.

"What the hell is this guy made of?" Disco cried, running out of energy. He couldn't continue the fight much longer, he had to find a way to kill Lumpy. He was completely tapped for ideas, until he noticed Russell's body slowly sliding towards him. He ran to him, fishing in his pockets.

"Come on, don't tell me you ran out, yes!" Disco pulled a familiar green canister from Russell pocket, pulled the pin on it, and lobbed it at the mad butcher. It landed a few feet in front of him and exploded, sending him flying. Lumpy landed with a thud, his entire lower torso blown off from the explosion. He found himself lying underneath the racks of meat, and reached up feebly to them.

"Me-meaat….." he said, and grabbed at one of them, knocking it off balance. The entire 250 pounds of dead cow fell off its hook and fell, crushing the butcher.

Disco, meanwhile, was untying Russell, who was just regaining consciousness. His body was covered in deep gashes from his scrape with the butcher. Disco stood above him, and said.

"It's over Russell, you're finished."

He looked up at his new captor, "What about Petunia?"

"She's with us now. She's going to tell me everything, so why don't you save me the trouble?"

"You bastard," he muttered "My entire life was devoted to avenge my what you people did to Santa Cabeza. Why was cattle more important to you than human life? Why, why did my people have to die to feed your fat bellies?" Disco lunged at him, grabbing him by the shoulders,

"That doesn't excuse what you've done!" He was shouting, but noticed his tone and calmed himself, "Please. I will tell the story of Santa Cabeza. What happened there won't be forgotten. But, I need you to help us. How are you jamming the signals around here, how did you get the virus here?"

Russell, obviously weak from his wounds was nodding in and out of consciousness. His eyes flicked open and he laughed. "Hey, aren't zombies great?" He was delirious, but meant every word sincerely "They just keep eating, and eating, growing in number. Just like you red, white, and blue Americans!" He laughed, but began coughing up his own blood, and his expression became grim.

"Please, do me one favor," He grabbed his necklace, and with a tug, ripped it off and held it out "Please, give this to my sister. Make sure Petunia gets this." His eyes became heavy, and he faded in and out of life, and soon, simply flickered away.

Disco stood and snapped a final picture of Russell, and left the butcher's shop.

* * *

Alright, there's another excellent Disco Rising chapter! Atleast, I hope it was an excellent one. Kind of an important moment, plotwise, Y'know. Anyhow, hope you enjoyed this one, considering I did it on my day off and all.

See ya Later, wonderful internet people!


	20. Betrayal and Escape

**Author's Note**

I always found this part of the game, unsettling. I always found comfort in being surrounded by the other survivors and, and well……

**Disco Rising **

*Error, Error, Incorrect Password, Access Denied*

Petunia let out a little sigh and typed on the laptop computer again, and the same message blinked on the screen. "Stupid piece of..." She muttered to herself.

She was sitting on one of the small mats that Russell had brought up for them to sleep on. In the northern Plaza, where most of the area was still under construction, Russell had begun to build their base far before the infection began. He worked under the guise of a contractor, working on a second air conditioning unit that had eventually become he and his sister's base during the infection. Now, it was only her, alone with nothing to keep her company but the tapping of the keys.

A deep metal creak alerted her to another presence, and she turned to find Disco, soaked with blood, and a grim look on his face.

"No," Petunia took on a look of bleak hopelessness "Please tell me you didn't.."

"I didn't, but he is dead. The butcher got him." Disco began fishing through his pockets, "The damn bastard bled out in front of me. But, he gave me this. He really does love you." He held out the ivory necklace, dangling it by the chain in front of her. Quietly, delicately, she took and rested it in both of her palms.

"Oh, God, please understand, he's not a bad man" She said, sniffing her tears. She clicked the small lever on the side of the locket, and the spring in it swung open, a picture of a family inside. "Russell, all he cared about was us. He got it from our father."

"What, what are you doing here anyway, I mean the computer." Disco asked, trying to move away from the sensitive subject.

"The blocker Russell put up, I've been trying to disarm it so we can get cellular and internet connections to the outside, but he never told me the password. Did he tell you anything?"

"Nothing, all he said was to give that to you." Disco finally sat down. It was comforting to finally be able to rest. The zombies were nothing compared to the psychopaths he had encountered, and while it certainly didn't make them very safe, Disco felt much safer without Russell. His body was aching from doing nothing but running around a mall for what was going on three straight days and this was the closest thing to a break he had. Petunia, meanwhile, was still staring at her Russell's necklace. She turned it over in her hand, as if she had never seen it before in her life, and then it hit her.

"Panchamama!" She said aloud and fell to the computer, typing.

"Paca-who?" Disco asked, sitting up from a mat he was resting on.

"Panchamama, it means mother nature. Our parents used to say that to us all the time, about how nature is the mother of all, ad how we should love and respect it as such." Petunia typed in the word into the computer's interface as she spoke.

*Ding, Access Granted, Hello Russell*

"Yes, now I can shut down the cell phone blocker. Call Flaky, tell her!" She said, typing away at the laptop. Disco picked up his transceiver and buzzed The Mole. After a brief conversation about how amazing he was, Mole finally hung up to pass the news on to Flaky.

(Back at The Security Room)

"And they really did it! Disco and that pretty lil' skunk girl took out Russell and got rid of the signal blocker!" Mole said, elated. Flaky gave an honest smile, this was the first time she had any reason to smile since Flippy had gone missing.

"Great, now I can contact base and get us a real ride out of here. Not for nothing, but I honestly didn't think Disco's helicopter was coming, but in a crisis you'll believe anything." She giggled, and dialed in the number for the homeland security HQ.

"Hello? This is Flaky, Flaky McCarney of homeland security. I was dispatched to Happy Tree Town to investigate the infection. Yes, yes I am safe. I'm in the mall, dead center of the town. Am I alone? Uh, no, I have a partner Flippy Garrison, and we've managed to rescue a large group of survivors. What, you're joking…No, you can't be serious, please! Think about what you're doing!" Her pleas were met with a dial tone; the officer had hung up on her.

"Flaky, is everything alright?" Mole asked, cautiously. He could see how nervous she was, Flaky was almost trembling with some kind of horrible shock.

"They're coming for us, the government called in the army.." She said, wide-eyed and seeming to stare off into space.

"What are you talking about, why would they attack us? We're not zombies!"

"Santa Cabeza, they still remember it. They killed the entire village to cover up America's mistake, and now they're going to do the same, to us."

"No way, we've gotta get out of here, hen's Disco's helicopter coming? Maybe we could get out that way."

"It won't be here in time, they're coming at midnight, half an hour from now." She looked up at the clock. It was hard to tell time, because they were always indoors, but Flaky had been keeping steady watch over their stay in hell. It was 11:34, and if Disco's helicopter was coming, it would be in just about twelve hours from now.

"Well, we can't just stick around here, we've gotta get out! I'm telling the other survivors."

"Why? What good'll that do?" Flaky stood up, beginning to cry "That's just going to send everyone into a panic, we might was well throw ourselves to the zombies like, like…." She broke down crying, and fell into Mole's arms. He was an old man, a little senile, but he knew what was going on. Why she was crying, she must have accepted that Flippy might just be gone forever.

….

"So that's the situation, I'm sorry." Mole said. The crowd in front of him was split between feelings of terror, remorse, and anger.

Ruffy stood up and jabbed at the Mole with his finger "You son of a bitch! You and the others led us here to die, and I bet that helicopter was never coming!"'

Mole looked away, and couldn't find how to respond. Ruffy was right in a sense, they were going to die and there was nothing they could do about it.

"Shut up Ruffy!" Chino came forward and pushed him back, Lala was close behind.

"Yeah, Mole didn't do anything. And neither did Disco or Flaky, if anything they kept us safe longer than we would have made it."

Ruffy grabbed his shotgun from the corner of the room "Well, ta hell with you all, I'm not gonna stay here and die!" He went off towards the ducts, but Spotty couldn't let him leave.

"Please, wait! We could escape together, if maybe we just…"

"Nobody's going anywhere!" Chunky stood in front of the door, "We need to wait for Disco!"

"Hey fatass, didn't you hear? We're not gonna make it that long, they're gonna be here in twenty minutes, no, even less!" Cuddles said, clutching his baseball bat. Soon everyone was fighting, screaming. They were all turning against one another, the crisis bringing out the worst in them.

"SHUT UP! EVERYONE SHUT UP!" The entire room fell silent, Flaky stood, clenching her fists and panting angrily at them. "Now listen, I know we may not be too friendly with each other, but look around. The people you see are just as important as you, and deserve just as much as you to survive. That's why Disco was risking his life rescuing all of you. Now, I hate to say this, but we won't be able to escape with Disco, we need to act now."

"But, but what about Disco? We can't just leave him behind; I owe him my life…" Frost sat, still helpless with his wounds.

"He's not being left behind," Caramel said, "He'll make it out alive, the Helicopter's still coming for him, right?"

"Yeah, he will escape. That idiot's too headstrong to die," Flaky said, trying to make light of the situation. "But for now we need to think of our own escape. The soldiers are coming, we only have ten minutes now, but I think they're traveling by helicopter."

"And that's our way out!" Mole said, "They're sure to land on the helipad upstairs, and we can surprise them , take the chopper and escape."

"No way, you're joking, right?" BJ asked, "We're weak, average citizens, we don't stand a chance against hardened soldiers."

"We do with the right plan, but we don't have time to debate this, either we act now, or die later." Flaky said, grimly "Now who's with us.

Everyone but Ruffy seemed to agree, and after Spotty gave him a little puppy dog eye treatment, he sighed "Fine, but I better get to shoot some soldiers."

……

The large military choppers were on course to Happy Tree Mall, a crew of at least 25 soldiers in each. A lone pilot spotted the helipad atop the mall and began its descent. Other choppers were landing on nearby buildings, letting out their passengers, and rising back up into the sky without a word. The military's special forces were always like this; cold and calculating, with a machine-like precision.

"I've spotted a helipad on the mall rooftops" The pilot began, "Team Delta requesting permission to take point on the mall and begin cleaning immediately." The radio buzzed with static and their commander finally responded.

"Permission granted, head down through the security room nearby and into the entrance plaza. Eliminate any hostiles and subdue any survivors, we can't kill them just yet."

"Roger, beginning descent" The pilot hovered down to the helipad and landed, the soldiers inside immediately pouring out. Two officers took point, a chameleon and a mouse, dressed in riot gear. They moved forward, and signaled for the rest of the crew to wait. Lying in front of the door was Frost, Flurry and Caramel holding him and crying.

"State your names please," The chameleon asked, still holding his rifle at them

"My, my name is Frost, this is my wife Flurry and my daughter Caramel." He lied "I was injured, a woman with a frying pan and a guy with a baseball bat attacked us, please help.."

" Well if you just come with us we can evac you and find those attackers, tell me what they looked like."

"They," Frost began coughing, the signal. Two shadows began to close in on the unknowing soldiers "They looked, just like THAT!" On that last word, Cuddles and Grace leapt from the darkness and struck each of the soldiers, knocking them unconscious. The twenty or so other soldiers raised their weapons, but Ruffy, Light, Dark, and Crystal ambushed them.

Light slashed at one of them with a hunting knife, but his bullet proof armor repelled the blade, and her grabbed her arm and threw her to the ground. Dark noticed this tried to help her sister, but a soldier attacked her from behind, and sent her sprawling on the ground. Crystal managed to cut a deep gash across one of them, causing the battle hardened commando to fall to his knees, bleeding profusely. But, another soldier noticed, this and shot her legs, and she fell to the ground screaming. Ruffy, despite his courage and ferocity in battle, could only manage stagger the heavily armored soldiers with his hunting shotgun. They soon surrounded him and knocked him senseless with their guns.

The survivors were incapacitated, leaving only Frost, Flurry and Caramel.

"What the hell was that?" a soldier approached them, brandishing his gun. "Did you have anything to do with this?

Caramel, who was now actually crying at the ruthless pummeling their friends had just endured, was the one to answer. "We're not alone, were gonna make you pay for what you did!" She said between sobs. Just then, a hail of bullets flew from above them, shooting down three soldiers.

"We've got snipers, take 'em down!" Another soldier shouted, and threw a flashbang up onto the upper portion of the roof. The others closed in on their position and soon they had Chunky, Mole, Beat, and BJ captured as well. Overwhelmed, the rest of the survivors were easily captured, and soon they were all tied and lined up before the troopers.

"Well well well," an officer, presumably their leader, began. He was a tall, lean, blue tiger. "Killing four soldiers and wounding three others. We were ordered to take you in alive, but maybe our commander will believe me when I tell them you were infected."

"You can't do this, we didn't do anything wrong!" Flaky cried, "You can't keep hiding the truth!"

"The truth, that should be the last thing on your mind now." The tiger raised his arm and the soldiers behind him steadied their aim. He was just about to drop his hand as a signal to fire, when a shattering of glass and a monstrous explosion knocked him off balance. He turned to find his troopers, engulfed in flames, collapsing to the ground in agony.

"What the hell, who's out there! I'll bury you for attacking my squadron!" He screamed, and began to fire out into the darkness with a small handgun. A feeling of enormous pain flooded him and he looked down to find a machete piercing his chest from behind.

"Goodnight, scum." Chad said, sliding the machete out and letting the tiger fall to the ground, dead.

"Chad! You made it!" Light ran to him and embraced him in a warm hug

"Hey, wait a minute," Chunky asked, "How did you get free?"

"Um, duh, ninja?" Dark said, standing up as well. After a few minutes, everyone else was cut loose and they could properly thank their savior.

"Wow, how'd ya do it? I mean, make it through the maintenance tunnels and get here?" BJ asked.

"Well, it was tough, but I managed to get inside of a vent and crawl my way past the zombies" He smiled proudly, "But I wouldn't have been able to take down this many soldiers without help from my pal, hey Tyler!"

"Is, is it safe?" He asked, and stepped from the darkness. Tyler was still alive and well, though he was covered in black soot. In one hand was another one of his Molotov's, and in the other his lighter, just in case.

"He managed to cut the zombies off from himself with a wall of fire, but when I found him he nearly died choking on the smoke." Chad said, "He's one hell of a trooper."

Chino lunged at Tyler and gave him an enormous hug, resting her head on his shoulder "I was SO worried, I heard what you said…"

Tyler blushed, "Yeah, I'm sorry. I really didn't think I was gonna escape, so I just figured you needed to know…"

Grace gave him a punch on the shoulder and smiled "Heh, never knew you had it in you."

"Guys, guys, please! We've gotta get out of here, we don't know when reinforcements are coming." The mole said, hopping on board the helicopter, "Now I can fly this thing, but we need to cut off the homing beacon and radio signals so they can't track us, anyone have any ideas?"

Lala smiled and shrugged her shoulders "Leave it to me, gramps." She began work on the helicopter while the other survivors waited anxiously. Finally, Flaky couldn't bear to guess anymore, and got Chad's attention.

"Um, did you happen to find Flippy out there, or do you think he escaped?"

"I'm sorry Flaky, but Flippy, we did find him. He was infected," He said, solemnly "I saw it happen. He was changing, and it was horrible. He looked like he was in so much pain."

"What? No! NO! Flippy, I could have gone with him! I could have saved him!" She started crying, and Chad tried to hold her but she pushed him away, "Get off of me! I did this to him, and I'm gonna die, I want to die!" She ran off, back into the security room, crying and covering her face. Chad took a step in her direction, but he was stopped by the sound of the helicopter whirring to life.

"C'mon Chad! We don't have time, we've gotta get out of here now!" Light called, and he ran onto the chopper, only looking back once he was on.

"Is everyone on? We good to go?" Mole asked from the pilot's seat.

"Hold on," Chunky said, " Perfect, Mr. and Mrs. Lee, Light, Dark, Beat, BJ, Cuddles, Toothy, Giggles, Caramel, Frost, Flurry, Sniffles, Chino, Grace, Lala, Tyler, Ruffy and Spotty. Crystal's here, but she's hurt, and um Ivory passed out I think but she's here. Alright, plus you and me, we're good to go!" Mole nodded in agreement, and the helicopter lifted off the ground, leaving the terrors of Happy Tree Mall behind once and for all.

* * *

And so the survivors escaped, leaving behind Disco, Petunia, and Flaky. I wonder how they're gonna make it out, guess we'll just have to wait and see, huh? Oh, and sorry to all those Flippy fans, but fate had plans for him I just couldn't change.

Anyhow, I hate to say it, but we've only got three more chapters to go. And then, I'm gonna prepare a little treat for all of you who submitted characters, think of it as a late Christmas present. Or whatever you celebrate.

Phoenix Reece, Signing off!


	21. Revenge and Abandonment

**Author's Note**

Here I am, once again devoid of something funny to say. I guess all I can say is thank you. This story was the first thing I posted here, and if not for the support of many of you, be it submitting an OC, frequently reviewing, or just plain helping me get the chapters uploaded, I would have never gotten this off the ground. But, the end is only in sight, we've yet to reach it, so let's enjoy the last legs of the ride.

**Disco Rising**

…Twenty Minutes before the survivors' escape….

"So, what do we do now, I mean with Russell gone?" Petunia asked.

"We wait, I suppose. Now that he's gone we can escape with the other survivors." Disco said, heading towards the vents to leave Petunia's hideaway, "Coming? It'll be safe with us."

"It's safe here, I prefer to be alone. The helicopter's coming tomorrow, at noon, right?"

"Yeah, it is, but are you sure? I don't want a pretty young thing like you to be alone with these ghouls."

"Odd how you flirt with a girl right after telling her that her brother is dead, no?" She replied coldly, Disco taking this as his cue to leave. He leapt down from the vents into the northern plaza, and decided he'd kill some zombies on his way down t the security room for kicks. He dumped open a tool box, finding a couple saw blades and a nail gun, and went to town on the unsuspecting zombies. He was actually beginning to enjoy the bloodshed, and was almost to the security room when the transceiver on his hip rang again.

"Disco, it's Flaky, get out now."

"What, what are you talking about, is everything okay?" Disco was shocked, it appeared like one of the few people he could fully trust was turning on him.

"No, it's the military, when you got the cell barrier down, I called them. They heard that there was more survivors and now, oh god." He could hear Flaky sobbing over the transceiver.

"Flaky, Flaky, stay with me!" he tried to calm her down, "is there anyone else there? Who can I talk to?"

"There's nobody else here, they all escaped, but I can't. I can't leave here, I'm going to die here!"

"What do you mean, is this about Flippy?"

"He's dead! Flippy was eaten by those bastards and now, now I'm gonna die here with him!" She screamed, and she threw her transceiver against the wall, making a ferocious crash in Disco's ear.

"Fuck, Flaky!" He yelled into the dead line, "God damnit, I gotta find her before she does something reckless!" He stuffed the transceiver back into the pocket of his coat and broke into a sprint, checking his handgun was loaded.

…Back in the security room, ten minutes after the survivor's escape….

The two soldiers, the ones who had only been incapacitated, had awoken from the blows that had knocked them unconscious and while one stood guard on the door, another was interrogating Flaky in the monitor room. The mouse, Ka-boom was his codename, paced back and forth as she kneeled on the couch, clutching her knees. He felt no threat from her and left his rifle in the corner of the room.

"Miss Flaky, please, what was zat transceiver doing zere, and why were you aiding zose survivors?" Ka-boom asked her, in a heavy French accent. "Just come clean and we will forget zis ever happened, no?"

She didn't answer, so the mouse reached out and placed a hand on her shoulder, trying to negotiate with her.

"Please miss, just tell us what we need to," he looked into her eyes, they were glassy. "Uh, miss are you feeling okay?"

She didn't say anything to him, but instead began growling. Outside the monitor room Sneaky, a chameleon who had also survived the attack by the escaping survivors, could hear the commotion. He tapped the glass off the door,

"Hey, Ka-boom, you okay in there?" He asked. No answer came for a few seconds, and then he heard a roar, and a girlish shriek.

"MON DIEU, DE PORC-EPIC FILLE EST FOU!"

He could recognize Ka-boom's voice, and rushed in. He aimed his rifle at Flaky, who was hunched over Ka-boom, his body drenched with blood. She appeared to be chewing on his neck.

"Flaky, Miss Flaky, is that you?" He asked, slowly approaching. Then, she suddenly turned and lunged at him, knocking the rifle from his hands and jumping on top of him. His short fit of screams was broken by the gruesome snapping of his jugular as Flaky bit deep into his skin, letting out a spray of blood.

….

Disco climbed from the vents, gun in hand, ready to confront the special forces that the military might have sent in, but the room was quiet. Quiet, except for something he had never heard in the security room, something that threw him off.

"Is there a… zombie in here?" He knew it, there had to be, something was gnawing on flesh, and it was close.

As he cautiously approached the monitor room, and peered in the doorway, he almost vomited. Flaky was soaked in blood, her clothing torn from the struggles of the two hapless soldiers she was feasting on. Their entrails were spilled out on the floor from her vicious clawing and she was hunched over a body, chewing on the eyes of an unfortunate mouse.

"No, no, no please Flaky not you. Not sweet little Flaky." He was going to cry, but he didn't have time to. Flaky, or at least what was left of her, heard him approach, and lifted her head from the carcasses. In a split second, she lunged at him, but even grieving he didn't let his guard down. The zombie had flung itself straight at him, and he caught her by the throat, pressing her struggling form against the wall. Disco coldly pulled the pistol from his coat and pressed the cold steel against her head.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, Flaky, please just stop struggling," He said, tears running down his eyes "Just please die…"

The trigger clicked and Flaky's brains were splattered against the wall. Disco let go of her, letting her lifeless corpse slump to the ground, and he stumbled horrified to the counter in front of the rows of monitors. His head was spinning, he felt like vomiting, and worst of all he was alone. He couldn't face Petunia now, he couldn't look at her after he just murdered a young girl, with so much ahead of her. He was a murderer.

"No, I'm not the murderer, they are…"

Disco looked up onto the monitor, the special forces soldiers were crawling around every inch of the mall, shooting down the zombies, if they even were zombies. His hands clenched in rage, and he realized he was crushing a piece of paper in his fist. He flattened it out and read it quietly.

_Disco, _

_We're getting out of here, I would've waited for you and your ride but there's no time. We managed to jump some Special Forces officers and hijack a helicopter. I might not look it, but I've got a small aircraft license. We're all getting out of here, but Flaky, I don't know about her. Everyone misses you, and they all agree that we wish you could have come along, but still, you've got your own ride. I figure you'd need a little while longer to do your research. I definitely owe you a drink if we meet on the other side. _

_Mole, _

_P.S. I left you a little something to defend yourself, just in case. I asked Giggles if she wanted to keep it, but it just brought back bad memories. Check under the desk._

Disco reached under the desk where he had found the note and felt the rubber tipped handle of Rhyme's chainsaw. He picked it up and grinned grimly, muttering under his breath.

"Revenge"

…3 AM…

He had managed to sneak around the mall quite easily, in his three day stay he learned how to move without detection as the Special Forces ops slaughtered the zombies. He had almost everything he needed, but stopped in the park to find the crashed Jeep where the convicts had died. Lifty was still lying there, it seemed the zombies ignored the dead as if they were spoiled meat.

"Sorry pal, I'm gonna need to borrow this," Disco said, unzipping his convict's jumpsuit.

…Unknown time...

Paradise Plaza

The soldiers were like a well-oiled machine, mowing down zombies in a collective unit. Several squadrons were employed in each sector of the mall to make sure the cleansing operation was complete. One soldier, most likely an officer of some sort, signaled his unit to stop so he could answer an incoming message from command.

"Attention, all units be on the lookout for a psychopath wielding a small handheld chainsaw, he has reportedly killed all units stationed in the northern plaza and the food court areas. There have also been several reports of this individual using Molotov bombs on our soldiers. The suspect is wearing a convict's jumpsuit and a hockey mask, if the reports are correct. Shoot this individual on sight, over."

The officer clicked his walkie-talkie off and addressed the other soldiers.

"Well, boys, looks like we've got hostiles in this mall, shoot anyone wearing a convict's uniform on sight, he is a hostile."

"Wait a minute," a soldier nearby him said, "did, did I hear that thing correctly? The radio I mean, it said we're facing a maniac in a hockey mask with a chainsaw?"

"Yeah, what's it to you? We're armed private; remember that and maybe you won't get killed."

"But, this is insane, zombies and chainsaw-wielding maniacs? I signed up to be in the military, not some slasher –flick!"

The officer lowered his weapon and stepped up to the soldier, jabbing him with his free hand, "Listen punk, I am in the middle of one of the most dangerous missions of my life, and I won't get killed because one of _my_ soldiers is pussying out on me!" The soldier was just about to respond, when the sound of a chainsaw whirring echoed through the mall. Screams could be heard from above, the second floor.

"Holy shit, squad 117 is up there!" One soldier exclaimed.

"Stay frosty soldier, aim up." The officer said, and the other soldiers aimed at the railings, a few setting their sights on either set of stairs. The screaming halted for a second, and then a body flew over the railings. The soldiers fell back in shock, realizing it was one of their comrades.

"Oh my god, that's Rex, he fucking killed Rex!" a soldier screamed,

"Shut up, shut up! Stay focused or you're next!" The officer said, aiming his rifle up again, just in time to see a Molotov fly over the railing, setting more than half his squad on fire.

"No, dammit come out of hiding!" The officer fired randomly around the mall, trying to hit his invisible foe. The chainsaw revved again, and another scream echoed through the mall, but by the time the officer turned another of his soldiers was dead. Then another, and another until the officer was alone.

"You son of a bitch!" He said, still firing blindly into the air, "Come out and fight me!" But, suddenly the pounding shots of the machine gun he held silenced. He clicked the trigger a few more times, and realized he was out of ammo.

"Well, if you insist," Disco called, his voice much more sinister. He stepped out of the wall of flames that had engulfed the soldiers, his convicts uniform and hockey mask stained with blood. The soldier backed up in terror, throwing his gun aside and putting up his hands to defend himself. Disco was unarmed though, and simply walked up to him. The soldier backed into a wall, and Disco clenched his right hand into a fist. Then, like a lightning flash, he struck. The soldier didn't feel anything at first, then a hot pain building up in his stomach. He looked down and realized his entrails were spilling out of his stomach, and that Disco was holding them in his hand. With his cocky smile hidden behind his mask, he lightly pushed the soldier away, letting him slump over on the ground.

As he walked away, he muttered to himself "47, 47 murderers KIA…"

…11:30…

Half an Hour before the scheduled arrival of the helicopter.

Petunia was still sitting by her computer when Disco hauled himself up the ladder, still drenched in blood. He was still wearing the mask; he wasn't quite ready to face her.

"I see you've been busy," She said, unflinchingly.

"Very, I've been taking my revenge." He said.

"I know, Russell had hacked his way into the security cameras a long time ago."

"Well, I'm finished, I've killed 47 of the bastards."

"You're just like him, my brother."

"Now I see why he did all of this. It feels right."

"It's not right, you knew that in the beginning

Disco thought about what she was saying, but brushed it off, "The helicopter's coming soon, we need to leave."

"Go, you have a ride to catch, and I'm sure you don't need me dragging you down." She said, and faced the computer again. Disco thought about responding, but she was right he did need to get moving.

….12:00 noon, time of scheduled helicopter arrival….

Disco had decided to change back into his suit, the convict's uniform might scare away Handy when he arrived. There he was, alone, but he knew the truth now. While he was waiting he pulled out his notepad, the one he had been using since he arrived to keep track of his adventure at Happy Tree Mall. He sighed, thumbing through the pages. His day of arrival, Russell's first attack, Flippy and Flaky.

"At least everyone else is safe, at least the truth is safe." And now he was safe, everyone was escaping, but Petunia. She would die like her brother, but that was the path she'd chosen.

Off in the distance, Handy was there, watching him on a nearby building through a set of camping binoculars.

"Well damn! He made it, that son of a bitch made it! Now to get in there, swoop him to safety and stake my claim." He laughed, and hopped into the helicopter, starting it up. From the mall roof Disco could hear the whirring blades of the helicopter and began to wave frantically to attract the pilot.

"Don't worry buddy, I see ya, I see ya!" Handy said quietly, and began his descent onto the mall's helipad. But, unknown to him, a zombie had managed to sneak its way onto the helicopter, and lurched up behind him, chomping down on his neck.

"Oh god, what the hell?!" He screamed and let go of the controls, desperate to dislodge the attacking ghoul. From Disco's perspective though, all he could see was the helicopter spiraling out of control missing the mall and crash landing in the parking lot.

"No, oh no, no, no!" He whispered, "No, it wasn't supposed to be like this, no, I was supposed to get out. No…" He fell to his knees, staring off into the sky, his only escape was gone. His mind felt numb, he couldn't grasp what had just happened. How he was robbed of his only way out, how he was just doomed.

Unbeknownst to him, zombies had even found their way onto the roof, and were slowly closing in on him.

Petunia, who had a last minute change of heart, had made her way to the roof, only to find Disco on his knees, doing nothing to stop the undead closing in on him.

"Disco? Disco! What are you doing?" She called to him, but he didn't move. Finally, she fired a few shots from her own handgun to kill the nearby zombies, and ran to him.

"Please, Disco! Snap out of it!" She called to him, and he turned to face her. His eyes were glazed over, and he slowly collapsed on the helipad, as if the life had been drained from his body.

Petunia kneeled beside him, placing her fingers on his neck. "An irregular pulse, no, no! They've gotten to him. Please, don't die yet Disco, I can save you…"

"Please, don't become one of them…"

* * *

What happened to Disco, could it be true? After all this time, could he be… No, not him, he can't be…

One more chapter to go.


	22. Justified

**Author's Note**

Huh, so this is it…. The end. But, it's going to go out with a bang, I won't let my fans down. The end, the ultimate chapter, the final struggle for life, the escape? It's all over too soon, all I can say is thank you all for being along for the ride, and I want to-

Everyone: GET ON WITH IT!

*Sweatdrop* Sorry, just got a little dramatic. Here we go….

**Disco Rising**

Disco couldn't remember what had happened, he was on the helipad, and Handy had crashed, died. He had to be dead, so was he, as good as dead. But, not yet, he wasn't dead yet. Had he fallen asleep? His senses returned to him, first his hearing, but he heard nothing but a faint humming. Then, he opened his eyes to the dim lights above.

"Where, where am I?" He thought aloud.

"Our hideout," He heard a voice, it was Petunia. Disco sat up on the mat she had laid him down on, and looked around. It was Russell's old hideout, he and Petunia were alone and now this was the only refuge they had left.

"Disco, the Special Forces, they're gone. I've been watching through the mall security cameras and they're all gone now. But, we have worse problems" She said solemnly.

"Worse, what could be worse than those murderers?" Disco said, not even bothering to stand up.

"When you passed out on the Helipad I brought you back here, and I ran a blood test on you while you were unconscious."

"And, what?"

"You've been infected, I don't know when it happened but you've been infected with the parasite."

Disco didn't move, he didn't say anything just sat there, trying to take in what she said.

"I'm sorry but it hasn't taken effect yet, it varies from person to person. It could take days to,"

"To die? Wonderful, fucking wonderful!" He said, laughing pitifully "I get to be a fucking zombie, this is what I get for saving all those bastards, trying to find the truth?" Petunia couldn't look at him like this, she felt guilty. She could have stopped this from happening, she could have saved so many people. But, it wasn't too late, she still had time.

"Disco, my brother and I, when we researching the parasite we developed a sort of antidote. It won't cure you but it will temporarily halt the maturing of the parasite in your blood. The longer it takes to reach adulthood the longer you'll live."

"So, I get to wait longer for the inevitable? So I get to be a ticking zombie time-bomb?"Disco said, "Thanks a lot, but your family has done enough!"

Petunia backed off, he was right. This was all his fault, and the best she could do was make him a

"Zombie time bomb, oh my god." She said, shocked, and turned back to the computer "No, it couldn't be true." She frantically typed away at the keys, pulling up files from Russell's database.

"What, what's going on?" Disco approached, looking over her shoulder.

"Russell, a few years back, he had started an orphanage, taking in children from around Santa Cabeza who were suspected of infection. He didn't want any more loss of life, so he gave them assumed names, hiding them in America." The computer displayed a map of America, listing the names of children and their current location.

"There's a child in every major city in America, including here" Disco said, staring at the board in terror, "That bastard brother of yours made fifty little ticking zombie time bombs?"

"I had no idea, I swear! I always thought he was just being a saint, saving those children"

"Well, looks like you thought wrong. Now about that antidote,"

"You said you didn't want it, right?"

"We don't have a choice, we need to escape here so this plot of his can be revealed, and having two of us will make this easier." Disco stood and looked around the room, "My chainsaw?"

"The far end of the room, and take my pistol with you. But I need you to gather some supplies," Petunia slid the pistol off her hip and handed it to Disco, " I'll need a few things, some surgical gauze, forceps, some alcohol, a microscope, a perfume bottle, and a heater, maybe a Bunsen burner or something along those lines."

"Fine, that shouldn't be too difficult, given we're in a mall." Disco said, turning to leave.

"Wait, you're going to need something else," Petunia said, pulling open a cabinet. "I told you the zombies were caused by a parasite, and that is true. But certain parasites mature into a queen parasite which is capable of spreading the infection rapidly, it looks like a wasp. I need you to find one and bring it back here so I can get an extract of it and hopefully stall the infection. Here," She handed him a jar.

"Normally a queen parasite always remains inside of its host, but if the host dies it leaves the body. With all the zombies presumably dead, all you have to do is find the bug."

"So catch a single wasp in a jar somewhere in this two mile long mall and find your supplies before I die and become a shambling corpse?" Disco said, flashing his cocky smile "Easy."

…..

The metal latch on the vent swung open and Disco pulled himself up, an overstuffed backpack slung over his shoulder. He lugged the case over to Petunia, who was preparing a small folding table covered with test tubes and other medical equipment.

"So, did you get it?" she asked, setting up the test tubes.

"Yeah, here," He tossed her the jar, letting the bag of supplies drop off his back, "I tell ya, these soldiers do shit work. There must have been a hundred of them with machine guns and I coulda done a better job clearing this place out. I found rogue zombies everywhere, did you know they could got onto the scaffolding, because I sure as hell,"

"Shhh," Petunia silenced him, "I need to work." She opened the jar and filled it with ether, to dull the queen's senses. She picked it up by a wing and placed the specimen on a Petri dish, slicing it open with a small scalpel.

"My god, what an excellent specimen, the corpse it came from must have been engorged \with blood, it's incredibly healthy."

"Great, the bug's healthy as a horse and I'm set to die who-the-hell-knows-when! Can we speed this up?"

"Gilipollas…" Petunia muttered under her breath, pouring the insect's stomach contents, along with a few other chemicals, into a flask and ignited the camping stove Disco had brought underneath it. "Now, if you'll let me just take a blood sample to add to the mixture." She pulled out a needle, and Disco recoiled.

"What, what are you doing with that?" Disco asked, holding his wrist away from her.

"Are you serious, you're going to become a shambling corpse and you're pissing yourself over a needle?"

"…Make it quick." He held out his arm, closing his eyes and holding out his wrist "Just don't let me know when you,"

"Done." She said. Disco opened his eyes and Petunia had filled the syringe with blood.

"Oh, well now what?"

"Now we just have to heat the mixture for about ten minutes, and we'll have your antidote. For now we just wai-" The lights flickered and clicked off, along with the numerous other humming machines that lined the hideout. The power was out.

"…Fan-fucking-tastic, the military must have cut the power. Anything else wanna happen today?" Disco said, fumbling around in the dark.

"Hold on, I have a flashlight," Petunia said, flicking it on and shining on Disco. "Don't worry, Russell keeps a backup generator in the park, one at the center of the mall."

"Where?" Disco asked impatiently, but caught himself "I mean, you know it's a big park."

"The clock tower near the western end, he keeps it in the unlocked maintenance panel, just activate it from there." As Disco left, she gave him a weak smile, "Good luck."

"Heh, as if I'd die after all this?" Disco said, cracking his cocky smile once more before he leapt down the air duct.

….

"My god," Disco muttered under his breath, "It's a graveyard." The entire park was littered with zombies, and even In the pitch blackness of the powerless mall Disco could see corpses lying everywhere in bloodied heaps. The visceral carnage was just another example of what the government would go through to keep the Santa Cabeza incident a secret forever. And now the burden of the truth rested solely on Disco and Petunia's shoulders.

"Can't be getting out of this place any sooner," He thought, flipping open the panel of the side of the enormous stone clock tower that was could be called the landmark of the entire mall. Funny the things you miss when you're fighting for your life. A flick of the switch and the emergency generator powered on, illuminating the tower first, then the rows of lanterns that dotted the park. Disco was just about to smile, things were looking up. But of course, this couldn't be, and a piercing shriek cut through the night.

"What the f-" Disco covered his ears. It was as if fifty thousand people shrieked in agony all at once. When the screaming ceased, Disco's senses returned to him, and he went to investigate. He didn't have to go far though, just on the other side of the clock tower he found the source of the screaming. The very earth underneath the clock tower was torn away, and some kind of underground tunnel was what seemed like an endless river of zombies. They were different from the zombies before, they had changed. Their skin was a mass of purple, as if they were hemorrhaging blood from within, and their eyes had a piercing red glow.

"My God, they're, evolving…" Disco was terrified, he pulled Petunia's handgun from his pocket and fired at one of the zombies. A hit to its right eye, and it shrieked it terror as a copious flow of blood spilled from its wound. Then , something truly horrifying happened.

The zombies turned on the wounded, beginning to claw at it as the lone ghoul fought to keep its brethren from devouring it. But, it couldn't fight the thousands of zombies closing in, and it fell to the waves.

Disco was speechless, he could only shake his head in horror, thanking God that the tunnel was at least six feet below him, the zombies unable to master climbing. But, he couldn't waste any more time, or he may as well throw himself into the waves.

….

"Alright, you're safe, for now." Petunia pulled the needle from Disco's arm, shaking away the last of the blood red serum. "But, in all honesty it was useless. All we can do now is stay here. I can continue my research; maybe even find a permanent cure."

"What, we just stay here and die?" Disco sat back down on the small mat, frustrated with their bleak situation.

"We can't get out of here, the military is surrounding us on all sides. Like you said, the only way out is in the sky." She returned to the lab table, picking up a vial of a green serum "Besides, this mixture here seems to act as a nerve gas, paralyzing the parasite and overriding it's control over the host's body. If I can figure out a way for it to act on premature larvae we might just be able to save you."

"Wait, wait a minute, this stuff paralyzes zombies, like completely?"

"Well, yes. To put it simply, it smells bad to them, so much so it freezes them dead in their tracks."

Disco sprung up, "That's our way out!" He grabbed her by the shoulders, "There's a tunnel, I don't know how it got there or where it leads, but it just might be our way out! It's filled with these vicious zombies, even I couldn't fight off that many, but this gas of yours, it repels any zombie?"

"Well, yes in theory, but I" She was cut off by Disco embracing her.

"YES! You're a miracle worker Petunia! C'mon, we don't have any more time to waste!" he pulled himself off of her, and leapt down the air duct, not giving Petunia any more time to protest.

"Well," She sighed, "We just might get out after all…"

….

The ghouls clawed at them rabidly, even if they were unable to reach them six feet below. Disco, starting to get cold feet, turned to Petunia.

"So, this thing will seriously repel the zombies?"

"It should, but I'm not certain" Petunia said, pulling a small perfume bottle from her pocket. It was the serum, labeled "From Heaven" in elaborate script.

"Well, I trust you." He said, taking her by the hand. "Let's go." Petunia nodded, and sprayed a mist of the green perfume over them.

And then, hand in hand they jumped down into the tunnel, the zombies recoiling and tumbling over at their approach. So they continued on, the undead falling to their knees around them, through the darkened tunnel to what they hoped was freedom.

"My god, this is amazing." She said. She was thinking aloud, and the feeling was mutual.

"I know, this, this is incredible." Disco said, though a little loudly. But what did he care, they were on top of the world right now, nothing could touch them, and he was comforting a total hottie through a death-defying tunnel of horrors. And he wasn't even breaking a sweat.

The tunnel, as they found out, had to be some kind of sewers, as it led for what seemed to be miles, all lined wall to wall with zombies. The scent they used to repel the zombies was by no means permanent, but Petunia had brought extra for just that scenario, recoating them with the repellent when the dead drew too close. But human beings could only slog through a darkened sewage system, surrounded by the constant piercing moans of flesh-eating ghouls before it began to gnaw at one's sanity. More than once, Disco contemplated slashing away at the zombies, but remembering how they swarmed to blood he thought better.

The hope appeared, as it often did, in the distance. They could see the light at the end of the tunnel, not more than 100 yards away. Disco, of course, couldn't contain himself.

"It's almost over, I knew it! I knew it!" He laughed, running forward "We're getting out of, AUGH!"

A zombie grabbed Disco by his shoulders, and only by his quick reflexes was he able to knock it away with a punch.

"Disco, wait up, you need more repellant!" Petunia ran to him, spraying the zombie repelling serum over his body. Then she turned the nozzle to herself, but nothing happened. She pushed the lever over and over again, but it was no use.

"No, it's empty." Petunia said, " I won't make it. Quickly, get out of here before the serum wears off!"

Disco's eyes flared up at the thought, "Like hell I'm leaving you behind, not after everything!" He picked her up, wrapping her arms around his neck. Petunia was shocked, and a tad bit embarrassed.

"What, what are you doing?"

"Not letting Santa Cabeza die here!" Disco said, and made a mad dash, bowling over hundreds of zombies in mere minutes, sprinting with a passion that went beyond a simple fight for survival.

"Maybe, love?" Petunia blushed at the thought, staring at her savior.

It was about seven in the morning, the sun must have risen while they were in the tunnels. It was a construction site, and thankfully the zombies here were few and far between, huddled in groups and gnawing on carcasses. Near the center of the sandlot where they had arrived a military Jeep sat, untouched.

"The military must have been overrun." Petunia commented, given the bodies the zombies were feasting on and the abandoned jeep.

"Our escape, now come on." The two made their way to the jeep, Disco driving and Petunia in shotgun. He started up the jeep and they began their drive to safety. This was it, they were finally home free. In the jeep they could find their way to safety, far away from the horrors of Happy Tree Town and scars of the past. It seemed that way at least, but fate had one last trial, one memory to relive.

"Disco, do you hear a.." Petunia couldn't quite place it. It sounded enormous and familiar, but at the same time foreign.

"A tank?" Disco said, not taking his eyes from the narrow paths they drove on.

"How did you,"

"I've covered wars you know." Disco replied, "The military must still be around here. We just have to keep our heads down and get out of here quickly." A high pitch noise hit his ears, a rapid beeping of some kind of machine. They both turned and saw for a moment an enormous tank positioned only a hundred feet away from them. Then, in an instant it fired a shell at the jeep, sending tumbling across the sands of the construction site.

Disco pulled himself up, clutching his head. His ears rung, his head was throbbing, but he was alive. He stood, looking around trying to find his bearings, find Petunia. But the tank caught his eyes, the enormous war machine. It was a new model, like nothing he'd ever seen in any war. He looked on his chest and saw a red dot crosshair steady itself on him, and the beeping began again. His body grew cold in frightful realization, and he leapt to one side a second before the tank exploded another shell. He landed face down in sands, fumbling to find Petunia's pistol in his pocket. He stood again, aiming it at the tank as he turned, not fully knowing what he was aiming at.

The tank whirred, a orb on its side twisted, a small camera visible within it. A red laser projected from it and steadied itself back onto Disco, and it a panic he fired at the orb, hoping it would prevent the next shot. Two, three shots before he finally hit it at the peak of its beeping, possibly ceasing it milliseconds before he was shot dead by another shell.

And, the orb on the side smoked, and nothing happened. Disco, still paralyzed with fear stood clenching his gun, aiming at the tank.

….

"….Course of action?"

Inside the now-defunct tank, a blue squirrel sat, dressed in Special Forces body armor, save for its helmet. He loosened his grip on the tank's controls as a computerized voice repeated the message to him once again,

"Targeting system offline, firing sequence interrupted, ballistic tube jammed, course of action?"

He tapped a few controls and the voice ceased, and then he spoke to it through the microphone on his helmet. "Access code 1577, shut down all mechanisms and eject pilot from cockpit."

The machine hummed for a few seconds, and powered down as the hatch above him opened, and the seat slowly rose up to allow him to pull himself onto the roof of the tank. Disco immediately took aim at him, but he didn't fire. The squirrel cupped his hands over his mouth, pulling a lighter from his back pocket, igniting a cigarette he had placed in his mouth.

"Kid, I know quite a bit about you, from eyewitness reports. You think you can escape us?" He said, smoke pouring from his mouth, "You've killed quite a few of my men with your cowardly guerrilla tactics, are you afraid to fight like a real man?"

"Afraid? I'm not the coward who fights in gangs, murdering innocent people!" Disco screamed, his hands shaking.

"Innocent people? Don't you think my soldiers are innocent people, don't you think they have families? And my 'Murder' is justified" He said, unflinchingly.

"So am I! I'm fighting so people can learn why this happened, what the Santa Cabeza cover up caused, and why the government needs to come clean!"

The soldier cackled, "You want to spread the truth about Santa Cabeza? Now therein lies a little problem, I wouldn't want all my hard work to go to waste because you went blabbing to the public."

"What? Who are you, what do you have to do with this?"

"My name is Sgt Splendid Mason, and ten years ago I was sent on a mission with my squad to eliminate all trace of the Santa Cabeza incident. But, as I can see I haven't done my work thoroughly enough, and little bastards like you keep living and making me look bad."

"You…you son of a bitch, you can't keep covering up the past like this! The truth needs to be told!"

"I admire your temerity, why don't you come up here and fight for your life? Unarmed, nothing but your pitiful will to live to save you." Splendid cracked his knuckles. Disco needed no other excuse and ran to the tank, leaping onto its base. The sergeant laughed and jumped down from the tank's turret, holding up his fists at the ready. Disco began with a sweeping kick to the face, which Splendid easily blocked.

"Heh, is that really all you can manage?" Splendid delivered a vicious hook, sending Disco sprawling towards the edge of the tank. He pulled himself up just in time to realize the swarm of zombies that began to crowd around the tank, smelling the fresh meat. But, he could care less, and ran at Splendid once again, with a flying kick to his jaw. The commando stumbled back, clenching his jaw.

"Not bad, rookie." He mocked, spitting out blood. Before Disco could react, Splendid rushed him again with a flurry of punches that made him reel back in pain. And while he was stunned, Splendid grabbed the defenseless bear from behind in a brutal headlock, twisting his head to one side. Disco felt the pressure build in his neck, realizing that he was about to be killed and fought back, slamming his head into Splendid's uncovered head, knocking him backwards. Disco turned to face him and they began circling each other, waiting for the moment to strike next.

"You know," Splendid said, through his bloodied jaw, "You remind me of a little boy I met in Santa Cabeza. He fought me, he tried to fight the government, and do you know what I did to him, I let him live. But, you know what I did do?" He pulled a shining steel combat knife from his pocket.

"I cut out his eye."

Disco backed away slowly, until he was at the edge of the tank. "You said unarmed, you lying bastard!"

"Do I really look like the type to bargain with a man I could have killed in an instant, I just wanted to have a little fun!" Splendid laughed and rushed at him with the knife, digging it into Disco's stomach. He laughed, holding Disco with one hand onto the blade of the knife. But, as Disco's hands slowly wrapped around his waist and he felt himself being lifted off the ground, Splendid's smile faded to a look of shock, as Disco, in a fit of rage, lifted him up and threw him off the tank, into the waiting arms of the zombies. The squirrel landed on his head with a sharp crack, and at once felt nothing. He opened his eyes to see the zombies kneeling down to eat away at him, and he tried to fight, but couldn't feel anything. The fall on his neck paralyzed him from the neck down, and he could do nothing to fight as the zombies devoured him alive.

Petunia shrieked, and Disco turned to see her, balanced on the overturned Jeep, kicking away at the zombies attempting to reach her. He reached out to her, but fell to his knees, panting from his wound. And then, in a last fit of desperation he screamed into the sky, a cry that pierced the heavens, a shriek that was beastly, almost inhuman.

….

_Both Disco and Petunia escaped from Happy Tree Town that day._

_The evidence Disco had found was decisive, and soon the government admitted all connection to the livestock experimentation and the extermination of the villagers of Santa Cabeza._

_But, in the media saturated lives of the Americans, and the isolation of the town, people soon let the incident at Happy Tree Town fade from their minds, only the survivors who escaped together remembering the tragedy that happened._

_Russell's plan to use children as his pawns even after his death has yet to be either proven false or validated._

_**And yet he complained that his stomach was not full.**_

* * *

**Survivors Escaped**

**27**

Disco

Petunia

Mole

Giggles

Cuddles

Toothy

Sniffles

The Lee Family (Mr, Mrs, and Perfect)

Frost

Flurry

Chad

Light Shadow

Dark Shadow

Chunky

Caramel

Grace

Chino

Lala

Tyler

BJ

Crystal

Beat

Ivory

Ruffy

Spotty

* * *

My god, it's over, I finished it. My first story has come to its close. Thank you, all of you who contributed to my story, be it a character I used, an idea that took shape, or even an anonymous review just to tell me you cared. I thank all everyone who read, everyone who waited, everyone who cared, and in all honesty if you're here reading this, I thank you for making it to here.

----Reece Cabe Anthony Vallo (AKA Phoenix Reece)


End file.
